176 EQUISETACEA 
branches are three-ribbed, and somewhat triangular in form, and each joint. 
is terminated by three long pointed teeth of the same colour as itself.’ 
6. Shade Horsetail, or Blunt-topped Horsetail (Z. wmbréswm).— 
Barren stem very rough, particularly above, branches simple ; fertile stem 
either unbranched, or with simple branches and larger sheaths. This species 
has not hitherto been found in many places in this kingdom, though it occurs 
in marshes in some parts of Yorkshire, and about the Westmoreland Lakes ; 
at Wynch Bridge, Teeside, Durham ; near Warkworth, in Northumberland ; 
near Mere Clough, Manchester ; as well as in several Scottish habitats; and 
in the mountain glens of Antrim, in Ireland. It was first discovered in the 
latter locality by Mr. T. Drummond, and hence this plant was formerly 
termed EL. drummondii, but it has since been ascertained to be the species 
called, by Willdenow, E. wmbrésum, and by Ehrhart, E. pratense. 
This species has three kinds of stem: one bearing fructification only, a 
second bearing both fruit and branches, and a third with branches only. 
The fertile stems are rigid, about six inches high, of a pale sea-green hue, 
and with large, loose, and remarkably white sheaths, having a brown rim at 
the base of the teeth. These are long, narrow, and sharp, and are pale 
brown with white edges. The oval catkin, composed of forty or fifty scales, 
is at the top of the stem, and of a light brown colour ; at first seated on the 
topmost sheath, but shortly rising on a footstalk. It is matured in April. 
The branched fertile stems have sheaths midway in size between those of 
the two other kinds of fronds. Whorls of branches are produced at the 
uppermost joints. The cone, which is terminal on the stem, is smaller than 
in the ordinary form of the fertile trond, while the number of branches is 
fewer than in the barren stem. 
The barren stem is erect, and from eighteen to twenty inches in height ; 
it is very rough, and has about twenty sharp ridges. A few joints at the 
base are without branches, the joints on the higher part of the stem produc- 
ing whorls of from ten to sixteen drooping branches, which gradually spread 
so as to form larger circles. The sheaths are smaller than those of the fertile 
stem, clasping it more tightly, and have teeth similar in colour, but shorter, 
fewer, and less prickly. The slender branches are about four inches long, 3- 
or 4-ribbed, and their loose sheaths terminate in three or four short, sharply- 
pointed teeth, tipped with pale brown. 
7. Great Horsetail, Great Water Horsetail, or Great Mud 
Horsetail (£. telmatéia).—Barren stems erect, with thirty to forty branches 
in each whorl ; fertile stems with loose sheaths. This is the largest of our 
British Horsetails. It is a very graceful plant, and when growing in any 
quantity, it might remind one of those pictures of oriental palm-groves 
familiar to all readers of Eastern travel. It is the barren stem of this 
Horsetail which is so handsome, growing erect to a height of six or seven 
feet, decked from its summit nearly to its base with spreading whorls of 
delicate green branches; and few would see a luxuriant specimen on the 
stream-side without admiring its grace. On the stouter part of this tall stem 
the whorls consist of from thirty to forty branches, which are again branched. 
The whorls on the upper part are very numerous, and the branches six or 
eight inches long; but towards the base the whorls are more distant, and 
