270 HISTORY OF BRITISH FERNS. 



dwarf stunted growth. We have had no opportunity of 

 testing their constancy in cultivation, neither are we aware 

 of any experiments having been made on this point, but 

 we should expect they would both revert to the common 

 form under the influences of domestication. 



Ec[iiisetnni ramosnm, SchlekJicr. 

 Long Moiigh Horsetail. 



This plant, on its discovery in the United Kingdom 

 being first made known, was named E. dongatum by Sir 

 W. J. Hooker, and it has since been called E. MacJcayi 

 by Mr. Newman, and identified as the E. trachyodon of 

 A. Braun by ]\fr. Babington. Mr. Bentham and others 

 refer it to E. ramosum. 



It is one of those species in which the stems that pro- 

 duce the fructification, and those which are barren, do not 

 differ in any other respect, and are therefore said to be 

 similar ; and in which, also, the stems are almost branch- 

 less, the branching being mostly confined to the production 

 of one or two erect lateral stems from near the base, and 

 this lateral branching is by no means common. Some- 

 times, indeed, the upper part of the stem is also sparingly 

 branched, but the branches are produced singly from the 



