Equisetum.] equisetace^. 627 



point, branches simple erecto-patent, fertile stem without branches, 

 its sheaths remote loose"— Br. Fl. p. 582. E. B. t. 2020. 



Abundant on stiff clay soil in cornfields, and on the landslips. Fl. March, 

 April. 



The Ions, blackish, creeping; root sends up several flowering stems in early 

 spring, from 6 to 13 inches high, erect, pale, cylindrical, hollow,'jointed and suc- 

 culent, terminating in a cone of 2 or 3 inches in length, at first greenish, after- 

 wards brown. Sheaths 4 to 8 or 10, pale brown, inflated, looselv clothing the 

 stems, terminating in 20 or more dark brown, long and finely pointed teeth ; the 

 sheaths are in the young plant approximate, but when in flower remote. After 

 \he fertile stems have died off, the sterile ones come up. 



The elastic action of the spiral filaments is beautifully shown. by shaking a lit- 

 tle of the ripe seed from a portion of the catkin on a piece of thiii window-glass, 

 and bringing it under a high power of the microscope. At first little action is per- 

 ceptible, the filaments merely relaxing their spiral grasp in some degree, but in a 

 few minutes, as if by one consent, they start asunder, and, spreading widely, en- 

 tirely liberate the green globular body they before embraced, and to which they 

 are still attached by their base. The simultaneous action of so many little atoms 

 exerting this faculty of irritability gives an appearance of animation to the mass. 

 The filaments are delicately transparent, and seem flat and unjointed ; their ex- 

 tremities are somewhat triangular, and covered with colourless transparent 

 globules. 



** Fertile stems similar to the sterile ones ; simple or branched. 



3. E. sylvaticum, L. Wood Horse-tail. " Sterile and fertile 

 stems with about 12 furrows, branches compound whorled de- 

 curved, sheaths lax with about 6 or 12 long membranaceous ob- 

 tuse teeth."— Br. Fl. p. 582. E. B. t. 1874. 



In moist or boggy woods, thickets, and on wet shady banks, but very uncom- 

 mon in the Isle of Wight. Fr. April, May. 



E. Med. — In Apse-heath withy bed, plentifully, 1837. Parsonage lynch, 

 Newchiirch. 



Rhizoma perennial, blackish brown, tough, slender, sparingly branched, de- 

 scending perpendicularly or creeping horizontally, but to no great length, emit- 

 ting a lew dark thready fibres. Fertile steins solitary, rarely 2 or more from the 

 same rhizoma, from about 6 or 8 to 12 or 18 inches high, quite erect, but be- 

 coming bowed or arcuate some lime after gathering, scarcely the thickness of a 

 quill, succulent, soft and weak, without rigidity, cylindrical, tapering upwards, 

 pale green or nearly colourless, rather faintly striated with from about 12 to 14 

 furrows, whose intermediate ridges appear under a lens rough with minute aspe- 

 rities, hardly perceptible to the touch : when they first rise from the ground the 

 fertile stems are quite simple, but with the opening catkin most of them begin to 

 develope a whorl ol branches at each articulation, from the highest joint down- 

 wards in succession, to the number of from 1 or 2 to 8 (never more, Newm.), mostly 

 about 3 — 5; a few of the stems remain unbranohed and quickly disappear: the 

 number of branches in each whorl corresponds to that of the furrows ou the stem, 

 to the ends of which they are opposite, compound, bright green, gracefully arch- 

 ing or decurved. Sheaths numerous, loose, a little inflated or ventricose, shorter 

 than the inlernodes, strongly ribbed and furrowed, dividing at top into 3 or 4 ob- 

 long or lanceolate, pointed, membranaceous lobes, of a pale brown, the lower part 

 of the sheaths greenish or towards the bottom of the stem becoming uniformly of 

 a deep reddish or blackish brown coh)ur. Catkin from about 9 to 12 or 15 lines 

 Ion;;, on a soft hollow stalk about its own length or rather more, ovoid-oblong or 

 truly conical, often a little curved or oblique, abrupt or truncate at base, the apex 

 obtuse or slightly pointed, the very narrow scales at first greenish while, after- 

 wards of a pale reddish brown or fawn-colour. Spore-cases (sporangia) oblong or 



