488 THE MOSS FAMILY. 



2. Field Horsetail — [Equisetum arvense.) 

 In ploughed and waste land, on hedgebanks and by waysides, every- 

 where. In low, moist cornfields often a very troublesome weed. 

 Fertile stems in April and May. 



Curtis, ii. 284 ; E. B. xxix. 2020. 

 The only British species that has the barren and fertile stems invaiiably 

 distinct. 



3. Sylvan Horsetail — [Equisetum sylvdticum.) 



Woods, cloughs, and on shady ditch-banks, more or less on every 



side of Manchester, but in the greatest profusion in Mere Clough, 



Agecroft Woods, and in aU the sylvan scenes thereabouts. Fertile 



stems in May and June. 



E. B. xxvii. 1874. 



The most beautiful of the genus. (See " Manchester "Walks and Wild-flow&rs," 

 page 23.) 



4. Pond Horsetail — {Equiseium limosum.) 

 In ponds, reservoirs, and other standing waters, forming dense 

 aquatic forests of tall thin stems, two or three feet high, abundant 

 eveiywhere. Fruiting and sterile stems together in the summer. 



E. B. xiii. 929. 



5. Marsh Horsetail — {Equiseium palustre.) 

 In marshy and swampy places, common everywhere. Fertile and 

 sterile stems (of which latter there are few) together in the summer. 

 E. B. xxix. 2021. 



Equisetum hyvmale., (Ciurtis, iv. G43.) is grown in a few cui-ious gardens. 



CLV.— THE MOSS FAMILY. Musci. 



The mosses reflect from afar almost all the most beautiful phe- 

 nomena of flowering-plants, yet on a scale so minute that without 

 the microscope it is impossible to learn their history. The general 

 forms of the larger species are easy to be observed, but the fructifica- 

 tion is in no case to be made out accurately until magnified, as happens 

 indeed with all the flowerlcss plants, and especially with the ferns, but 

 in regard to the mosses particularly important to mention, because of 

 their close resemblance in most other points. Verj' careful observe- 



