TILICES. 



621 



and very probably a mere variety, differing oiJy in its slender stems, with 

 only 8 to 12 or seldom more strise ; the sheaths have seldom any black 

 ring round the base, though thev often tmni black altogether and the teeth 

 have usually lanceolate, subulate points. The stem terminating the stock 

 has usuaUy a few long branches, especially from the lower whorls, and 

 varies from 1 to 2 feet liigh or more ; the lower stems are simple, slender, 

 and shorter, all usually bearing a spike. 



In sandy, moist places, generally dispersed over Em-ope and Eussian Asia, 

 but apparently rare in Britain, if indeed the British specimens be really 

 distinct fi-om the following. Fr. summer, rather late. 



9. Variegated Equisetum. Equisetum variegatum, Web. et Mohr. 



(Eng. Bot. t. 1987.) 



This is again considered by some, and perhaps correctly, as a variety of 

 i\\e rough E. Stems slender, all simple, or very rarely branched, usually 

 in several tufts, 6 to 8 inches high, but the terminal or central one some- 

 times lengthened out to 1 or 2 feet, with only 8 to 10 striee ; the sheaths 

 short, with a conspicuous black ring, and short teeth. Spike seldom half 

 an inch long, with a conical point as in the rough E. _ 



In maritime sands, or on the sandy banks of rivers, sometimes qmte in 

 water, in the maritime or mountain districts of Europe and Russian Asia, 

 especially in the north, and more rarely in North America. In Britain, 

 chiefly in Scotland, Ireland, and the coasts of northern England. Fl. sum- 

 mer, rather late. 



XCI. THE FERN FAMILY. FILICES. 



Herbs, with a perennial, short, or tufted, or creeping root- 

 stock (in some exotic species growing up into a tall, woody 

 stem), or rarely annual : with radical or alternate leaves, which, 

 as they also partake of the nature of branches, are distin- 

 guished by the name of fronds. In most genera these fronds 

 are, when young, rolled inwards at the top, and the rootstock, 

 and sometimes also the stalks of the fronds, are more or less 

 covered with brown, scarious, usually pointed scales. Fructi- 

 fication consisting of capsules, called spore-cases {sporangia), 

 sometimes small and almost dust-like, arranged either in clus- 

 ters, called sori, on the under surface of the frond, and often 

 covered, when young, with a thin membrane, called the indusium, 

 or in little involucres on the margin of the frond ; sometimes 

 rather larger, in spikes or panicles at the top of the frond, 

 which has, lower down, either leafy branches or one leaf. 

 These capsules open in various ways to discharge the minute, 

 usually microscopical spores. 



A very large Order, abundantly diffused over the whole surface of the 

 globe, especially in moist cUmates, although some species may be found in 

 the chinks of the hottest rocks. The elegance of then- foUage has of late 



