448 99. EaiTisEiACEiE. 



FLOWERLESS PLANTS. 



Class III. CRYPTOGAME^. 



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- 

 duoino; spores which develop into a prothaUua which bears 

 antheridia and archegonia^. 



Order XCIX. EQUISETACE^. 



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. — Rhizome creeping. Branches 

 whorled. Cuticle abounding in silex. Only one genus. 



1. EatrTSE'imn Linn. Horse-tail. 



* Fertile stems mostly unhranched and succulent ; barren stems 

 with soUd whorled branches, appearing later. 



1. S. arven'sis (L.) ; sterile st. with 6 — 19 furrows slightly 

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

 long acute 1-ribbed at the tip, fertile St. simple with few lax dis- 

 tant sheaths.—^. B. 2020. S. 1. IT. F. 60. N. 77.— Sterile 

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

 roughish solid usually simple branches with deep furrows and 

 3 — 4-toothed sheaths, their lowest joint (including its terminal 

 sheaths) exceeding the st-sheath ; general outline narrowed up- 

 wards, usually naked at the end. fertile st. short, with few 



' (N.) refers to Newmaris British Ferns, ed. 2 (1844) ; {S.) to 

 Soruoerby's Ferjns and Fern allies ; {H. F.) to Hooker's British Ferns. 

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

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



