576 



very woolly, globose, scattered on the branches, and terminal, as 

 well as axillary. Flowers pentagonal, conoidal upwards. Scales of 

 Howers swelled and convex below the point, spinous point smooth, 

 purple, strong. Seeds with /etc elevations on the evanescent epider- 

 mis, oval. 



"Stouter than F. germanica, which is gray, not green, and has the 

 lieads of thirty to forty flowers, and all (?) terminal to their common 

 stalk. The leaves of the latter are taper to the point, narrower : the 

 involucral leaves with a broad base, and long, taper point. Our plant 

 flowers later than F. germanica, and is rarely obseiTed in the midst 

 of fields, where F. germanica abounds. The scent of the latter is very 

 feeble : the spinous points of the flower-scales yellow, or very rarely, 

 orpiment. The leaves of our plant are smoother above, and rather 

 woolly, than silvery with short down, as those of F. germanica are. I 

 have not met with our plant on clay land, upon which the other often 

 too much abounds. Seedling plants of both preserve the character 

 of the foliage, &c." 



Gerard Smith." 



Remarks on Equisetum variegatum, S^c. 

 By D. Moore, Esq., A.L.S., &c. 



In the number of the ' Phytologist ' for the present month (Phytol. 

 ii. 553), 1 observe a note on Equisetum variegatum, Weber and Mohr, 

 where it is stated that 1 " still continue to regard that plant as dis- 

 tinct from the prostrate form called E. arenarium," the plant figured 

 in 'English Botany' imder the name of E. variegatum. That such 

 is the case I admit, and farther, T have no longer any hesitation in as- 

 serting that our Dublin canal plant is identical with the Killarney 

 plant, E. Wilsoni, Newman. At page 40 of the ' British Ferns,' you 

 say you " cannot concur in this opinion without additional evidence 

 in its support," which I shall now endeavour to afford. It is this : 

 in March, 1845, I wrote to a friend residing at Killarney, requesting 

 he would search the shores of the Lake near Muckruss, for the Equi- 

 setum Mr. Wilson had previously discovered there, at the same time 

 affording him all the detail 1 thought likely to assist him in finding it. 

 In the course of a fortnight afterwards, I was gratified on receiving a 

 letter from him, inclosing specimens of the plant, with a description 

 of the locality where he found it, which perfectly agreed with that 



