48 WILD FLOWEKS. 



used in medicine. Gerarde recommends them in 

 a bruised state for the cure of wounds, and tells 

 us that the juice may be drunk in order to stop 

 bleeding of the nose ; and the roots boiled for 

 coughs. Blanchard prescribes them in an infusion 

 of plantain, to be taken night and morning, as a 

 remedy for consumption. It is not improbable that 

 they may possess some slightly astringent proper- 

 ties (though these must be of a very insignificant 

 amount) ; and in this light Tragus appears to view 

 them, as he speaks of applying the expressed juice 

 to recent and bleeding wounds, and also directs it 

 to be put into the nostrils and on the neck, in order 

 to stop bleeding of the nose ; and that it should be 

 taken internally in dysentery, &c. Haller, also, 

 highly esteems it in diarrhoea and several other com- 

 plaints ; but it is almost needless to say, that it is 

 now quite forgotten even by the most rustic prac- 

 titioner. 



Newman, who has done so much to popularise the 

 classification of the tribe of Filices, distinguishes ten 

 species of the horsetail as natives of Great Britain 

 and Ireland, which I shall, in enumerating, endea- 

 vour to divest as much as possible of their cumbrous 

 accumulation and confusion of synonyms : premis- 

 ing that the distinctive appearances of the species 

 are to be found in the nature of their fertile and 

 barren stems, the number of the furrows or striae, 

 and that of the teetli exhibited at those arti- 

 culated joints where they may be divided into 



pieces.* 



See Balfour's "Manual of Botany." 



