728 



This is, beyond all comparison, the most abundant of our British 

 Equisetums ; indeed it is a serious nuisance to the farmer and gar- 

 dener, whose utmost efforts to eradicate it frequently prove ineffectual. 

 It appears to have little choice of locality, being equally common in 

 dry and moist situations. 



The name of this species is now universally received, and I am 

 not aware that any doubt exists as to its being the Equisetum arvense 

 of Linneus, although there is some confusion in the nomenclature of 

 the specimens in the Linnean herbarium, as already shown. The 

 barren stem of this plant is without doubt the 'Equisetum arvense 

 longioribus setis ' of Ray's ' Synopsis,'* and it also seems to me that 

 the ' Equisetum pratense longioribus setis,' of the same work, although 

 added by the careful Dillenius, is the same plant. Still this latter 

 has sometimes been considered distinct as a species, and identical 

 with the continental E. pratense, which is so carefully described by 

 Roth,t and previously, although not so fully, by Ehrhart-I Roth, 

 however, admits that he had never seen the catkin, and the circum- 

 stance of this being found on a branch-bearing stem forms the chief 

 diagnostic of the species. Willdenow, who describes the species,§ 

 confesses he has not seen it at all, and almost every other author 

 omits it altogether : thus it appears not improbable that some form 

 of E. arvense was the plant originally intended. The 'Equisetum 

 nudum minus basilieuse ' of Ray can be none other than the fertile 

 stem of E. arvense, as I think is sufficiently proved by the following 

 passage. — " This was first shew'd to Mr. Lawson at Great Salkeld, 

 but grows in so great plenty there and everywhere on the banks of 

 the River Eden, that he could not but wonder that this was the first 

 time of its being observ'd in England. 'Tis an early and quickly 

 fading Vernal Plant, which might probably be the Occasion of its 

 not being hitherto taken notice of by those curious Gentlemen, who 

 commonly began their Circuits too late in the Year for such a Dis- 

 covery ."|| The ' Equisetum nudum minus variegatum basiliense ' of 

 Bauhin,1[ is quoted by Smith as synonymous with his E. variegatum, 

 and by Linneus as synonymous with his E. hyemale, which plants 

 widely differ from the early disappearing plant described by Mr. 

 Robinson in the passage above cited. 



* Syn. 130. f Roth, Flor. Germ. iii. (5. 



+ Ehrhart, Beitrage, Band iii. p. 77, n. 36. § Species Plantarum, v. 6. 



II Th. Robinson Ess. towards a Natural History of Westm. and Cumberl., p. 92, 

 as quoted in Ray's Synopsis, p. 130. 



ni Pin. 16, Prodr. 24, Theatr. 260. no f. teste Smith. 



