EQTJISETACEiE. 619 



Spike terminating in a short point or minute cone. 



Stems usually simple. Whorled branches none or very rare. 

 Stems tall, with numerous (usually 15 to 20) strife and 



sheath-teeth 7. Hough E. 



Stems low and slender, often tufted, with few (usually 8 _ 



to 10) strise and sheath-teeth • 9. Variegated E. 



Stems, at least the central one, with whorled branches. Striae 



and sheath-teeth few (usually 8 to 12) ». Long F. 



1. Great Equisetum. Equisetum Telmateia, Ehrli. 

 {E. fluviatile, Eng. Bot.t. 2022.) 



The fruiting stems appear alone early in spring, they are quite simple, 8 

 or 10 inches high, as thick as a finger, of a pale-brown colour ; the sheaths 

 rather loose, au inch long or more, completely covering the stem from one 

 joint to the next, of a dark brown, marked with 20 or 30 or more longi- 

 tudinal strise, and fringed with as many long, subulate teeth, or half as 

 many, these teeth being often joined 2 and 2 together. Spike full 2 inches 

 long, the lower whorls of scales often distinct. Barren stems appearing 

 after the fruiting ones have withered away, often several feet high, wlute, 

 with the tips of the sheaths black ; the long, crowded, slender branches 

 very numerous in each whorl. 



In marshy, shady, wet, or gravelly places, in temperate Europe, not ex- 

 tenduig northward into Scandinavia, nor perhaps southward into Spain, 

 but eastward to Greece and the Caucasus, and thence all across Eussian 

 Asia, and in North America. Common in the greater part of England 

 and Ireland, but not penetrating far into Scotland. Fr. early spring. 



2. Field Equisetum. Equisetum arvense, Linn. 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 2020. Common Horsetail.) 



Fruitmg stem simple, thick, 8 or 10 inches high, and dying before the 

 barren ones appear, as in the^-rea^ JE., but the sheaths are seldom above 8 

 or 9 lines long, at a considerable distance from each other, and have seldom 

 more than about 10 lanceolate teeth, and are dark only in the upper part. 

 Barren stems 1 to 2 feet high, with slender spreading branches, about 10 to 

 12 in each whorl ; these are sometimes shghtly branched, but never regularly 

 so as in the ivood E. 



In fields and waste or moist places, throughout Europe and Eussian 

 Asia, from the Mediterranean to the Arctic i-egions, and in North America. 

 Abundant in Britain. Fr. spring. 



3. 'Wood Equisetum. Equisetum sylvaticum, Linn. 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 1874.) 



Eruitihg stems at first nearly simple, and about a foot high, but soon 

 branched, like the barren ones. Sheaths about half an uich long, divided 

 into about 6 to 8 lanceolate, scarious lobes, broader than in our other 

 Eqtdsetums. Spike about 6 to 8 hnes long, obtuse. Branches, both of the 

 barren and fertile stems, 10 to 16 or more in a whorl, very slender, but not 

 above 2 or 3 inches long, and remarkable for bearing, at the lower nodes at 

 least, whorls of 2, 3, or more smaller branches, which gives the plant a very 

 elegant tufted appearance. 



In wet woods, and shady places, in temperate and northern Europe and 

 Eussian Asia, from northern Italy and the Caucasus to the Arctic regions, 

 and in North America. Spread all over Britain, but more abundant in 

 Scotland and northern England and Ireland than in the south. Fr. 

 summer, or commencing in spring. 



