SERIES II. 



CRYPTOGAMIA or FLOWERLESS PLANTS. 



Vegetables, destitute of proper flowers, producing, in 

 place of seeds, minute bodies of liomogeneoas structure 

 (spores) in which there is no embryo before germination. 



Class III. ACROGEIVS. 



Cryptogams with a distinct axis (stem and branches) 

 growing from apex only, containing w^oody fibre and vessels 

 (especially ducts) and usually with some kind of fuliage. 



Order CXXII. E^^UISETACEJG, D. C. (Horse-Tail Family). 

 Leaf ess plants^ withricsh-lihe^ fiolloiL\ jointed stems from 

 running root^stocks and terminated hy a cone or spihe^ vjhich 

 is composed of shield-shaped^ stalJced-scales, tearing the spore 

 cases beneath, 



ECtUISETUM, L. Horse-Tail. Scouring Rush. Qot^-wasl 

 Sporangia 4-7, arranged in a circle under the angled scales of the 

 spike, 1-celled, To the base of each spore are attached 4, thread-like- 

 and club-shaped, elastic filaments, which roll up closely around the 

 spore when moist, and uncoil when dry. Stems striate-grooved (cu- 

 ticle abounding in siles), hollow, with an outer circle of air cavities 

 corresponding with the grooves. Joints solid, bearing a sheath split 

 into teeth, corresponding in number and position with the principal 

 ridges of the stem. Branches whorled. 

 "= Fertile stems leafless, marcescent after fruit-tear ing ; sterile later, leafy, 



1. E. Telmateia, Ehr. 2j: Fertile Fig. 422. 

 stems .2 to .3; sheaths tubular-turbinate, .02 

 to .03 long, fringed into 30, subulate teeth; 

 spike .05 long, .01 thick. Sterile stems .6 to 

 1, about 20-ridged, teeth of sheaths of simple, 

 octangular, slender branches 4 — March and 

 April — Coast to middle mountain zone. 



* * Fruiting and sterile stems alike, lasting 

 through the lointer. 



2. E. ramo§iiiii, Schl. % .3 to 1, pale 

 green or glaucous; stems erect, simple or 

 whorled-branched, 8-15-ridged; sheaths of 

 branches 6-8-toothed, teeth triangular, often Tipof branch of Equisetum 

 black-tipped, and with a scarious-setaceous ramosum. 



