276 UISTOEY OF LrJTISII TERNS. 



Equisetiim Moorei, Newman. 

 Mr. Moore s Rough Horsetail. 



This plant differs from the other native unbranched 

 Horsetails in the nature of its stems, which are not per- 

 sistent tlwough the winter, or evergreen as they are, but 

 die down in autumn, and are renewed in spring ; they are 

 therefore annual. They grow from a foot to two feet and a 

 half high, and are unbranched, except where the apex has 

 been destroyed, in which case branches are sparingly pro- 

 duced. They are rough, and are channelled with about 

 twelve deep well-marked furrows. The sheaths which are 

 loose, and have the same number of ridges as the stem, 

 are whitish, with a black ring at the base, and tipped by 

 about twelve blackish teeth, which are rigid, bluntish, and 

 terminated by elongated membranous paler awns. The 

 fructification consists of a cone, formed of about three 

 dozen black roundish scales, and terminated by a conical 

 acuminate apex. 



This plant was found in the year 1851, by Mr. D. 

 Moore, the indefatigable Curator of the Eoyal Botanic 

 Gardens at Glasnevin, Dublin. It was growing on banks 

 facing the sea at Rockfield, in the county of Wicklow. 



