156 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



SPECIES IV.— E Q Ul S E T U M SYLVATICUM. Urn. 



Plate 1891. 

 Babenh. Crypt. Vase. Europ. Exsicc. No. 43. 



Stems of two kinds, perishing in autumn. Sterile stem rather 

 slender, with 10 to 18 furrows, separated by ridges, usually furnished 

 with lines of minute spreading bristle-like processes which are longest 

 immediately beneath the sheaths, or rarely nearly smooth, pale green. 

 Sheaths cylindrical, green, reddish-brown at the apex ; teeth 10 to 18, 

 generally combined into 3 or 4 obtuse hooded lobes, rarely any of 

 them free, linear-subulate, reddish-brown or more rarely pitchy- 

 brown, scarious, with the exception of a concolorous firm central rib, 

 which reaches to the tip, but is not excurrent. Branches very 

 numerous, usually tetraquetrous, with the ridges faintly grooved 

 and separated by very deep furrows, solid, much branched, their 

 lowest internode is sometimes shorter than the teeth of the stem- 

 sheath below which it is produced, but exceeding them in the upper 

 whorls ; sheath enclosing the base of the first internode of the 

 branch olive, scarious and reddish-brown at the apex, furnished 

 with long triangular acute teeth ; sheath at the apex of the first and 

 succeeding internodes terminated by subulate very acute teeth. 

 Branchlets trigonous, their sheaths with very long subulate teeth 

 curving away from the branchlet. Fertile stem elongate, rather 

 stout, at first somewhat succulent and pale fawn-colour, ultimately 

 firm and pale green, less deeply striated and smoother than in the 

 barren stem. Sheaths rather distant, loose longly cylindrical, con- 

 tracted at the apex, their teeth collected into a few blunt much- 

 hooded lobes, marked with lines indicating the midribs of the teeth, 

 striate, but scarcely sulcate even at the base. Branches absent 

 until the fertile stem has attained nearly its full height, when they 

 begin to appear ; they are similar to those of the barren stem, but 

 usually, though not always, shorter. Spike oblong-cylindrical or 

 oblong-fusiform, at first greenish-white, afterwards fawn-colour. 



In moist woods and by the sides of streams, roadsides, and waste 

 places, and on heaths. Rather common and generally distributed 

 throughout England and Scotland, extending to Orkney and Shetland. 

 Not infrequent throughout Ireland. 



England, Scotland. Ireland. Perennial. Spring and early 



Summer. 



