EQUISETACE^E. 155 



shorter, generally much shorter. Spike oblong-fusiform, obtuse, at 

 first greenish-white, afterwards fawn-colour. * 



In pastures, especially by the sides of streams, and on shady banks 

 and in woods. Local and rather rare, extending from TVestmoreland 

 (or perhaps Lancashire) and Yorkshire to Lanark, Stirling, Perth, 

 Banff and Caithness. Local in Ireland, and confined to the North ; 

 most plentiful in the mountain glens of Antrim. 



England, Scotland, Ireland. Perennial. Late Spring and 



early Summer. 



Rootstock slender, without tubers. Sterile stem from the thickness 

 of a stocking- wire to that of a crow-quill ; usually 9 to 18 inches 

 high. Plant pale green, somewhat cylindrical, usually blunt-topped, 

 sometimes bending over at the apex, with the branches spreading or 

 drooping and slightly arching, occasionally somewhat secund. Fertile 

 stem appearing in April or the beginning of May, 4 to 14 inches 

 high. The sheaths are wider, the higher they are placed on the stem. 

 Spike J to | inch long. 



A very distinct species, though the barren stems are sometimes 

 mistaken for those of E. arvense, but the teeth of the sheaths are 

 very different, being entirely transparent except the thickened central 

 rib. The branches are generally triquetrous, not usually tetra- 

 quetrous as in E. arvense ; the first internode of the branch rarely 

 reaches even to the base of the teeth of the stem-sheath below which 

 it springs ; while in E. arvense it generally exceeds, and always 

 attains, the level of the apex of the teeth. The little sheaths from 

 which the branches spring are distinctly toothed in E. arvense, which 

 is not the case in E. pratense ; and this latter has the teeth of the 

 sheaths of the branches very obtuse, while they are acute in 

 E. arvense. The fertile stems are not likely to be mistaken, the 

 sheaths are so different ; those of E. arvense have the central rib 

 furrowed on the back, and the teeth with very narrow scarious 

 margins, while in E. pratense the central rib has no furrow on the 

 back, and except a small projection at the base, from which the rib 

 springs, they are wholly scarious. 



The fertile stems of E. pratense are to be compared with those 

 occasionally found in E. maximum and E. arvense which ultimately 

 produce branches. E. pratense has never, so far as I know, any form 

 of fertile stem analogous to the ordinary fertile steins of E. maximum 

 and E. arvense. 



Blunt-topped Horsetail. 



