308 



The roots and rhizoma present no characters by which I can dis- 

 tinguish this plant from that previously described as the normal form 

 of the species : they are both black, the roots being tortuous, much 

 divided, and often clothed with minute and matted fibrillae : the stems 

 are very long, generally erect, nearly straight, and jointed as in the 

 former species ; the figure shows a perfect stem divided into six por- 

 tions, its size and the relative length of the 

 internodes having been copied with scru- 

 pulous accuracy. Both the internodes 

 and sheaths are striated ; the striae vary 

 in number from eight to twelve, or even 

 fourteen. The stem is hollow, with the 

 exception of the transverse septa occur- 

 ring at the sheaths. Instead of being uni- 

 formly simple, as represented in the figure 

 at the head of this article, it is often spar- 

 ingly branched, as shown in the left hand 

 figure ; the branches rise singly from below 

 one of the sheaths, and a stem often bears 

 two or three such branches, the branches 

 themselves also occasionally emit other 

 branches in the same way, the plant, in that 

 case, being very luxuriant, and attaining a 

 height of three to four feet : the right hand 

 figure is a diagram showing the mode of 

 branching. Under the microscope the 

 structure of the stem appears precisely iden- 

 tical with that of E. hyemale ; the double 

 row of elevations on each of the ridges, with 

 their cup- shaped depressions in the centre, 

 are exactly as I have already described them, (Phytol. 278). The 

 sheaths are generally black, the central part sometimes white, but 

 scarcely ever so distinctly banded as in hyemale : the teeth are very 

 long, flexuous and setiform ; their edges at the base are dilated, 

 membranous, somewhat whitish, and nearly transparent ; they are 

 partially but not so decidedly deciduous as in the normal form of 

 hyemale. The catkin is small, nearly black, apiculate, terminal, and 

 striated as in hyemale : the scales are about thirty in number. 



Edward Newman. 



(To Le continued). 



coup plus grosses et plus vamifiees, qu'on eroiroit ne point appartenir a la meme espece. 

 —Id. 333. 



