HORSE-RADISH. 



HORSETAIL. 



vegetate at all. Mr. J. Knight recommends, 

 for the obtaining a supply of the crowns, any 

 inferior piece of ground to be planted with 

 sets, 6 inches apart and 6 deep ; these will fur- 

 nish v from 1 to 5 tops each, and they may be 

 collected for several successive years with 

 little more trouble than keeping them clear of 

 weeds. 



Horse-radish may be planted from the close 

 of January until the same period in March, but 

 the best times are in October and February ; 

 the first for dry soils, the latter season for 

 moist ones. 



The sets must be inserted in rows 18 inches 

 apart each way. The ground should be trench- 

 ed between 2 and 3 feet deep, the cuttings be- 

 ing placed along the bottom of the trench, and 

 the mould turned from the next one over them, 

 or inserted to a similar depth by a long, blunt- 

 pointed dibble. When the planting is com- 

 pleted, the surface should be raked level, and 

 kept clear of weeds, until the plants are of 

 such size as to render it unnecessary. It is of 

 great benefit if the mould lies as light as pos- 

 sible over the sets; therefore, treading on the 

 beds should be carefully avoided. They 

 speedily take root, and send up long straight 

 shoots, which make their appearance in May 

 or June. The only cultivation required is to 

 keep them free of weeds, and as the leaves de- 

 cay in autumn, to have them carefully re- 

 moved ; the ground being also hoed and raked 

 over at the same season, which may be repeat- 

 ed in the following spring before they begin to 

 vegetate. In the succeeding autumn they 

 merely require to be hoed as before, and may 

 be taken up as wanted. By having three beds 

 devoted to this root, one will always be lying 

 fallow and improving, of which period like- 

 wise advantage should be taken to apply any 

 requisite manure. If the plants, when of ad- 

 vanced growth, throw out suckers, these should 

 be carefully removed during the summer as 

 they appear. In September or October of the 

 second year, the roots may be taken up, and in 

 November a sufficient quantity should be 

 raised to preserve in sand for winter supply. 

 To take them up, a trench is dug along the 

 outside row, down to the bottom of the upright 

 roots, which by some persons, when the bed is 

 continued in one place, are cut off" level to the 

 original stool, and the earth from the next row 

 is then turned over them to the requisite depth, 

 and so in rotation to the end of the plantation. 

 By this mode a bed will continue in perfec- 

 tion for 5 or 6 years, after which a fresh plan- 

 tation is usually necessary. But the best prac- 

 tice is to take the crop up entirely, and to form 

 a plantation annually, for it not only causes 

 the roots to be finer, but also affords the oppor- 

 tunity of changing the site. If this mode is 

 followed, care must be taken to raise every 

 lateral root, for the smallest of them will vege- 

 tate if left in the ground. See SCURVY-GRASS. 



HORSETAIL (Equisetum, from equus, a 

 horse, and seta, hair, in allusion to the fine hair- 

 like branches). Although the plants of this 

 genus are looked upon as mere weeds, they 

 have a very interesting aspect when seen 

 growing in their natural situations; they are 

 found in boggy places, and multiplied by di- 

 646 



visions. Several of the species, like grasses, 

 secrete a quantity of flinty earth (silica) mostly 

 lodged in their articulations. There are seven 

 indigenous species. 



1. Branched wood horsetail (E. sylvatiri'tn"), 

 growing in shady moist woods, by trickling 

 rills, but not very frequent. This is a very 

 elegant species, 12 or 18 inches high ; stems 

 erect, beset with many whorls of slender, com- 

 pound, angular, smooth, spreading branrhes. 



2. Great water horsetail (E.fluviutile). Horses 

 eat this plant with avidity, and in some parts 

 of Sweden it is collected for the purpose of 

 serving them as winter food; flourishing in 

 watery places, about the banks of rivers and 

 lakes. This is by far the largest English spe- 

 cies, differing from the foregoing in the fructi- 

 fication, which is a large cylindrical catkin, 

 having four or five pale teeth on a separate 

 short stem, differing from the branched or 

 whorled frond, as is likewise the case with the 

 following one, E. arvense: all the others hitherto 

 observed in Britain have terminal catkins at 

 the top of the fronds. The terminal stems of 

 the great water horsetail are quite erect; at 

 least a yard high, often much more, furnished 

 from top to bottom with whorls of numerous 

 long slender branches. The catkins are brown, 

 with scales, which separate and show the 

 white scales when they are ripe. 



3. Corn horsetail (E. arvense). This, in Eng- 

 land, is a very common species growing in wet 

 meadows and moist grain fields. It is a most 

 troublesome weed in pastures, and is seldom 

 touched by cows, unless pressed by hunger, 

 when it occasions an incurable diarrhoea ; it is 

 eaten with impunity by horses, but is noxious 

 to sheep. The fronds are reckoned unwhole- 

 some to such animals as feed upon them in 

 autumn, especially swine. This rough grass 

 is employed for cleansing and polishing tin 

 vessels. In this species the root is much 

 branched, creeping extensively, producing in 

 the spring several simple, upright, flowering 

 stems quite destitute of branches ; a span high, 

 cylindrical, smooth, juicy, of a pale brown, 

 bearing three or four brown-ribbed sheaths, 

 and at the top a solitary catkin. 



4. Marsh horsetail, or paddock pipe (E. 

 palustre). This species grows most frequent 

 in spongy watery bogs, and other marshy 

 places, flowering in June and July. The stem 

 is rather slender, deeply furrowed, beset 

 throughout with whorls of slender, angular, 

 minutely rough branches. 



It is not so strong as the preceding species, 

 but is equally prejudicial to cows. It is also 

 very troublesome in drains, within which it 

 vegetates, and forms both stems and roots 

 several yards in length : thus the course of the 

 water is interrupted, and the drains are totally 

 obstructed. 



5. The smooth naked horsetail (E. limosum) 

 grows also in marshy watery places, and has 

 stems stouter than the last, about two feet 

 high, very smooth to the touch, though finely 

 striated. 



6. Greater rough horsetail. Shave-grass 

 pewterwort (E. hyemale). This species is 

 found in boggy woods, but not very common. 

 The root is black, variously branched ; stems 



