HORSETAILS 171 
creeping stem. In shady situations, as when overtopped by the rising 
corn, these deep green branches become very long and scattered ; but in the 
drooping attitude which they assume, and in the close growth of ordinary 
specimens, they are thick enough to remind us of the tail cf a horse, and in 
some cases they are again branched. ‘The stem is slightly marked with from 
six to nineteen furrows, and both stem and branches are rough with the 
minute particles of flint with which they are coated. The sheaths also are 
furrowed, and their ribbed wedge-shaped teeth have often a white thin line 
round the margin. 
This rigid plant is a very unwelcome intruder on the pastureland, as 
cattle, except when pressed by hunger, leave it untouched, and when eaten 
it is said in some instances to have proved very injurious, though sheep and 
horses seem to eat it with impunity. It sometimes runs all over the land, 
and is most difficult of extirpation. It is equally common in other parts of 
Europe, as well asin Asia and North America. It is in France called Préle ; 
and this, or some very similar species, is the Kannenkraut of the Germans. 
The Dutch call some common Horsetail Akkeriy paardestaart ; and these 
plants are the Hquiseto of the Italians and Spaniards, while several of the 
species are commonly known in Cochin-China by the name of Mahoang, and 
are called Chwostch by the Russians. The Horsetails are found in every 
latitude except the high south, abounding in northern temperate regions and 
a few being found in sub-tropical parts of America and Asia, and at the Cape 
of Good Hope. 
Our native species were, by the old writers, termed Shave-grasses, and as 
this Corn Horsetail has much of the roughness given by the particles of flint, 
and as it is the most frequent species, it is probably the plant sold in Queen 
Elizabeth’s time by the “ Herbe-women of Chepeside,” under the names of 
Shave-grass and Pewter-wort, or. Vitraria, though it would doubtless have 
been considered inferior to the EF. hyemdle, which Gerarde calls “the small 
and naked Shave-grass, wherewith fletchers and combe-makers doe rub and 
polish their worke.” It was very serviceable in the kitchens of olden times, 
and was doubtless used for cleaning the wooden spoons and platters, the 
“breen” of our forefathers, as well as the “ garnish” of pewter. Although 
in early days the tables of the opulent were served with silver, yet in 
humbler households wooden articles were commonly used at the daily meals, 
until the fifteenth and sixteenth century, when pewter came into general use 
among the higher classes ; though not until the beginning of the eighteenth 
century were the articles made from it sufficiently cheap to admit of their - 
being seen at any save the rich man’s table. Harrison, referring to this in 
1580, says that in some places “beyond the sea, a garnish of good flat 
pewter of an ordinarie making is esteemed almost so pretious as the like 
number of vessels that are made of silver, and in maner no less desired 
amongst the great Estates, whose workmen are nothing so skilful in that 
trade as ours ;” and the prices which he gives of the various articles prove 
their great costliness. The Shave-grasses served for cleaning either kind of 
ware ; and this Corn Horsetail is still used by the dairymaids in Yorkshire 
for cleansing wooden milk-pails; while the larger and less frequent plant, 
the Rough Horsetail, has long been known to our polishers of marble and 
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