99. EQUISETACE2E. 515 



FLOWERLESS PLANTS. 



Class III. CRYPTOGAME.E. 



Substance of the plant of cellular tissue or with a few 

 ducts. No woody fibre. No true flower with stamens 

 and pistils. No distinct embryo, nor cotyledons. 



A. Plants with a few ducts amongst the cellular tissue. Pro- 

 ducing spores which develop into a prothallus which bears 

 antheridia and archegonia. 1 



Order XCIX. EQUISETACE^E. 



Leafless branched plants with a striate hollow stem ; each 

 joint ending in a sheath which conceals the joining and encloses 

 the base of the next joint. Sporules surrounded by elastic cla- 

 vate filaments and enclosed in capsules arising from the peltate 

 scales of terminal cones or spikes. Hhizome creeping. Branches 

 whorled. Cuticle abounding in silex. Only one genus. 



1. EQUISE'TUM Linn. Horse-tail. 



* Fertile stems mostly unbranched and succulent; barren stems 

 ivith solid whorled branches, appearing later; 



1. E. arven'se (L.) ; sterile st. with 6 19 furrows slightly 

 rough, branches rough with 3 or 4 simple angles, teeth of sheaths 

 long acute \-ribbed at the tip, fertile st. simple with few lax dis- 

 tant sheaths. .#. B. 2020. 8. 1. H. F. 60. N. 77. Sterile 

 st. many, procumbent or ascending ; with many whorls of 

 roughish solid usually simple branches with deep furrows and 



1 (N.) refers to Newman's British Ferns, ed. 2 (1844); (&) to 

 Sowerby's Ferns and Fern allies ; (H. F.) to Hooker's British Ferns. 

 Moore's Handbook of British Ferns, ed. 3, may be consulted with much 

 advantage, and Milde in Nov. Act. Soc. Nat. Cur. vol. xxxii. 



