308 The Flora of Wiltshire. 



throughout all the Districts. Fertile stems vary much in height, 

 from 4 or 5 inches to a foot or more ; they are thick and succulent. 

 and of a pale brown hue^neai'ly covered with large^loose^deeply-toothed 

 sheaths, the teeth, from 30 to 40 in number, are dark and black. 

 The cone between 2 and 3 inches long. The sterile stems are of a 

 pale bright green, from 3 to 6 feet high, occasionally terminating in 

 a small imperfect cone ; they are smooth and marked with from 30 to 

 40 sti'ise, the long crowded, slender branches, very numerous in each 

 whorl. This is the largest of our indigenous Equiseta, its bai'ren 

 stems frequently attaining the height of 6 or 7 feet, while its whorls 

 of slender branches from 12 to 15 inches in length, present a triily 

 magnificent appearance, and gives an almost tropical aspect to the 

 vegetation among which it occurs. 



3. E. sylvaiicun, (Linn.) wood Horse-tail, Engl. Bot. t. 1874, 

 S. 4. N. 59. 



Locality. About springs in woods, thickets, and other shaded 

 situations. P. El. Ajpril, May. Area, * * * 4. 5, 

 North Division. 



4. North-east District, "Near Bowden, Chippenham,^' Dr, 

 Alexander Prior. 



5. North-east District. " Field a little beyond Tottenham.'* 

 Flor. Marlh. Very local in Wilts. The most elegant species of the 

 genus, from 12 to 18 inches high. Stems erect, beset with many 

 whorls of slender compound angular, smooth (not rough) spreading 

 branches, droopifig at the ends, each whorl having a pale-brown torn 

 sheath above it. Cone solitary, terminal, erect ovate, on a naked 

 stalk. The sterile stems are pyramidal in their general outline. 

 Fertile stems have 3 or 4 whorl of branches ; which being of nearly 

 equal length throughoutj occasions them to present a peculiarly 

 abrupt termination. 



4, E, limosum (Linn), smooth naked Horse-tail. Engl. Dot. t. 

 929. E, fliwiatile Newman, p. 51. 



Locality, Stagnant water, in ponds and ditches. P. Ft, June, 

 July. Area, 1, * * 4, 5. 



South Division, 



X. South'east District, "Pewsey." Rev, T. F, Ravenshaw. 



