50 WILD FLOWERS. 



places, ditches, &c. It presents the peculiarity of 

 bearing its catkins on stems similar to the barren 

 ones.* 



But pre-eminent in grace and beauty is the ele- 

 gant little wood-horsetail (E. sylvdticum, Linn.), 

 so happily called " the fairy larch/'f assuming, as it 

 does, a more flexile and less rigid habit than 

 others of the family; and forming, with its droop- 

 ing branchlets, a great ornament to our higher 

 woodland grounds ; in the shady recesses of which 

 it creates miniature forests of its own. 



Another pretty little species, bearing a faint re- 

 semblance to the last, is the shady-horsetail, E. 

 umbrosum of Willdenow, or E. Drummondii of 

 Hooker, which is very rare, having, as yet, been 

 found in no part of the British Isles except Scot- 

 land and Ireland. It also bears a slight resem- 

 blance to the corn -horsetail (E. arvense, Linn.), 

 which is not only exceedingly common in all kinds 

 of situations, but is a most troublesome and pertina- 

 cious weed ; one of the torments of the agriculturist. 

 It is remarkable from its being the only British 

 species which has its fertile and barren stems posi- 

 tively and invariably distinct, the latter not appear- 

 ing until after the former have fructified, in the 

 month of April. 



To the E. Telmateia I have already adverted, 

 and it is only necessary to add that this magnifi- 

 cent and most primitive-looking plant, which is of 

 very common occurrence, not unfrequently attains 



* Hooker "British Flora." 



t See Johnston's " Botany of E. Borders." 



