SERIES II. 



CRYPTOGAM lA or FLOWERLESS PLANTS. 



Vegetables, destitute of proper tiowers, producing, in 

 place of seeds, minute bodies of homogeneous structure 

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



Class III. JiCROGENS. 



Cryptogams with a distinct axis (stem and branches) 

 growing from apex only, containing woody fibre and vessels 

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



Order CXXII. EqiJISETACEJE, D. C. (Horse-Tail Family). 

 Leafless jplants^ withrusK-like^ hollotc. jointed ateras from 

 running rooUstocks and terminated ty a cone or spihe^ which 

 is composed of shield-shaped^ stallced-scales, hearing the spore 

 cases beneath. 



E^UISETUM, L. Horse-Tail. Scodring Rush. Qot^-wabJ. 

 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 hlameuts, which roll up closely around the 

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

 ticle abounding in silex), 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-'bearing ; sterile later, leafy, 



1. E. Telmateia, Ehr. If Fertile Fig. 432. 

 stems .3 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 aliTce, lasting 

 through the winter. 



2. E. rauiosiiiii, Schl. 2f .3 to 1, pale 

 green or glaucous; stems erect, simple or 

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

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

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



