EQUISLTUM. 259 



Tliis plant is not, as far as we are aware, applied to any 

 use ; and tlie harshness of its stems renders it by no means 

 agreeable to cattle, although it often occurs abundantly 

 among their pasturage ; and in cultivated ground becomes 

 a troublesome weed. 



Equisetum sylvaticum, Linnccus. 

 The Wood Horsetail. {Plate XX. fig. 3.) 



Perhaps this may be called the most beautiful of the 

 Eqidsetums ; certainly it is extremely elegant in almost 

 all stages of its growth, and perhaps never more so than 

 shortly after the fertile stems, with their fructification still 

 perfect, have begun to develop their lateral branches. 

 Later in the season, these branches, which have from the 

 first a pendent tendency, droop around with exquisite 

 grace on all sides. 



The creeping underground stem of the Wood Horsetail 

 is, like that of the others, dark-coloured and branched, 

 and produces from its joints the slender fibrous roots which 

 draw up nourishment to the plant. The aboveground 

 stems are erect, and, in a certain sense, those of them 

 which produce fructification, and those which are barren, 

 are similar, except as regards this one point. Their 



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