276 



stem was noticed by Gerarde in the passage already quoted. Haller* 

 also mentions it as being in his day used in common with other spe- 

 cies of Equisetum to polish metal vessels, but speaks of this species as 

 being the roughest and best. We are further told by Lightfootf that 

 " in Northumberland the dairymaids scour their milk-pails with it." 

 The value of this plant for the pui'pose of smoothing or polishing is 

 not, however, merely traditionary, or, like its medicinal virtues, ima- 

 ginary : it is still used for polishing wood, bone, ivory, and various 

 metals, particularly brass ; for this purpose it is imported, under the 

 name of " Dutch Rush," in large quantities, from Holland, where it is 

 grown on the banks of canals and on the sea ramparts, which are of- 

 ten bound together and consolidated by its strong and matted roots. 

 Bundles of this imported Dutch Rush are exposed for sale by many 

 London shopkeepers. They may be seen at Mr. Woodward's, Old 

 Compton St., corner of Frith St., Soho. I find however that a doubt 

 exists with some excellent botanists, whether the Dutch Rush as cul- 

 tivated in Holland is identical with either of the plants which I have 

 enumerated. ,Mr. Shepherd, the curator of the Liverpool Botanic 

 Garden, having this plant in cultivation, has most kindly supplied me 

 with specimens in a recent state. These are of much larger size than 

 any British specimens of hyemale I have yet seen, and present struc- 

 tural characters more strikingly different fi'om those of either of the 

 British plants, than those by which these are distinguished from each 

 other. The most obvious differences are the much greater number of 

 strise, amounting in some instances to thirty-two, and the colour of 

 the sheath, which, at the base, is identical with that of the stem, and 

 towards the apex paler or grey-green, the extreme margin being 

 tipped with black. The differences, however, do not appear so 

 great on examining a bundle of these rushes as exposed for sale ; the 

 stems being generally of much smaller size, and the sheaths variegat- 

 ed with black and white, as in our British specimens. 



a. Equisetum hyemale. 

 This plant appears almost unknown in the midland and southern 

 English counties. Indeed, throughout the kingdom it is but spar- 

 ingly distributed, and may be considered a strictly local plant. — 

 In Turner and Dillwyn's ' Botanists' Guide,' the following English 

 habitats are recorded : — in Northumberland, Scott's wood, wood be- 



* Omnia Eqiiiseta ad polienda vasa metallica adhibentur. Hoc tamen ut omnium 

 asperrimum ita aurifahris et scriniaviis suos ad usus optissimum est. 

 t Liglitfoot, ' Floi-a Scotica,' 650. 



