THE HOKSETAIL. 41 



HORSETAIL. 



Equisetum. 



Welsh, Khawn, or Ehownyn y march. French, Prele, Queue 

 de cheval, Caqueue. German, Kannenkraut, Asprella. 

 Dutch, Akkerig paardestaart. Italian, Equiseto, Codadi 

 di cavallo. Spanish, Equisito, Coda de mula. Portuguese, 

 Equiseto. Russian, Chwosch. Lap, Aske. Cochin China, 

 Ma hoang. 



LINN.EAN. NATUHAL. 



Cryptogamia. Filices. 



Equisetacece. 



THE Equisetum more than any plant, perhaps not 

 even excepting the palms and reeds of tropical cli- 

 mates, carries us back, in thought, to the days of 

 the early world, when the earth was peopled with 

 the strange monsters whose records are their rock- 

 entombed bones; and clothed with those peculiar 

 vegetable creations which, even now, wherever they 

 are simulated by newer forms, impart so singular an 

 aspect to the surrounding scenery. The same forms 

 which now constitute a humble undergrowth in 

 our woods, or a very troublesome weed in our 

 marshy meadows, once grew as trees, and saw the 

 appearance of the earliest warm-blooded animals in 

 the Cetacece* and Didelphis; [ or shadowed the 



* Trans. Geol. Soc., vol. i. 



t A genera allied to the present opossum. See Lyell's 

 " Princip. of Geol." &c. 



