The Wood Horsetail 



evidently points to the height of this species when 

 compared with the other horsetails. 



The Wood Horsetail, Equisetum syhaticum, which 

 is a shade-loving species, preferring woods, copses, and 

 shady hedgebanks, is the most beautiful of all the horse- 

 tails. It is seen at its best only where it grows in 

 colonies. The graceful whorled branches, drooping all 

 round the upright stems, give the colony the appear- 

 ance of a wood or forest in miniature. There are two 

 stems almost smooth, and marked by about twelve 

 furrows. The fertile stems when young are un- 

 branched, but when the cone has disappeared, whorls of 

 branches are produced. In both fertile and barren 

 stems the branches which give off whorls of smaller 

 branches at each of their joints are pendent, or droop- 

 ing. The stem sheaths are loose, ending in three or 

 four blunt teeth, while the sheaths of the branches 

 bear only three long sharp teeth. Both stems, which 

 are much alike, appear very nearly at the same time. 

 No further description of this plant is required, as it 

 can be easily identified by the drooping whorls of the 

 compound branches. 



Syhaticum is derived from the Latin siha, <c a wood," 

 and is applied to this plant because its chief home is 

 the woods. 



The Marsh Horsetail is an exceedingly common 

 species throughout the kingdom. It frequents marshes, 

 ditches, and places only partially drained. The barren 

 and fertile stems of this horsetail resemble each other 



B.F. 81 ii 



