AMONG THE WILD FLOWERS. 173 
ments at the base of it, each filament club- 
shaped at the end, and all four at first clasping 
the spore, but, in a dry atmosphere, spreading 
themselves out. On breathing upon them the 
moisture of the breath causes them again to 
curl up, closing round the spore; when dry 
again, they again uncurl; and this hygrometric 
property is retained for years. 
We have 9g or 10 species, of which the most 
common and abundant are those which grow in 
pools and slow streams, often like a dense crop 
of green canes; these are the Marsh Horse- 
tail, A. palustre, and the Smooth Horse-tail, or 
“ Paddock Pipes,” £. Zemosum. E. arvense, the 
common Field Horse-tail, produces its fertile 
stems early in spring, about 6 or 8 inches high, 
and its much-branched barren ones later. &£. 
sylvaticum is found in beds on the damp bor- 
ders of woods ; it is a beautiful specimen, hav- 
ing many whorls of slender deflexed branches, 
and delicate russet-brown sheaths, which to- 
gether give to a bed of this pretty plant the 
appearance of a forest of miniature larch trees. 
Probably it cannot be looked for in the South; 
in more Northern Counties and in the North of 
Ireland I have seen it in great beauty. The 
