1 66 ABOUT HORSETAILS, [CHAP. 



There are but ten British species, six of which are 

 to be obtained in the London district. Some of them 

 being very beautiful objects, might well be admitted 

 to a place in the fernery, all that they require being 

 plenty of moisture. The one thing to be sure of is, 

 that the underground stem is obtained with its root- 

 lets intact; it will then grow freely. Some of the 

 species have the additional recommendation of being 

 evergreen, though the deciduous kinds rival them in 

 elegance. 



The distribution of these remarkable plants is 

 almost world-wide, some of the species attaining a 

 considerable size ; but they cannot approach the 

 dimensions attained by representatives of the order 

 in past ages. In the forests of the Carboniferous 

 Period when our coal was being formed immense 

 horsetails were abundant, reaching the height of 

 thirty or forty feet, with a circumference of about 

 fifteen inches ! The remains of them have been 

 found as fossils in the coal, and the name of Cata- 

 mites applied to them. 



" There is no doubt now that they are of the same 

 family as our Equiseta, or Horsetails, a race which 

 has, over most parts of the globe, dwindled down now 

 from twenty or thirty feet in height, as they were in 

 the old coal measures, to paltry little weeds. The 

 tallest Equisetum in England the beautiful E. Tel- 

 mateia is seldom five feet high. But they, too, are 

 mostly mud and swamp plants, and 'so may the Cala- 

 mites have been." Kingsley, " Town Geology? 



Somewhat resembling the Horsetails in appearance - 

 is a small tribe of delicate aquatic plants known as 



