20 EQUISETACEAE (HORSETAIL FAMILY) 
seasons may sometimes be found on one plant; but broken and 
empty, for the spores are cast and germinate in the spring. 
Means of control 
Drainage of the ground. The presence of the weed is indicative 
of unwholesome soil conditions. After drainage, one or two sea- 
sons of thorough cultivation will destroy the rather shallow-growing 
rootstocks and cause the plant to disappear. Distribution of the 
spores may be prevented by cutting the fronds in the first season, 
when they are immature. 
FIELD HORSETAIL 
Equisttum arvénse, L. 
Other English names: Meadow Pine, Green Foxtail Rush, Pinetop, 
Pine Grass, Snake Grass. 
Native. Perennial. Propagates by 
spores and by rootstocks bearing 
small tubers. 
Rgore bearing stems appear: April to 
ay. 
Sterile stems produced: All summer. 
Range: American continent from- 
Greenland to Alaska, southward to 
Virginia and California. 
Habitat: Damp grasslands, moist road 
embankments. 
In early spring one may note large 
colonies of the fertile stems of these 
plants, mere cylindrical, light brown, 
leafless stalks, four to eight inches 
high, jointed, hollow, and tipped with 
yellowish, club-shaped, spore-bearing 
heads. Each joint is ridged and 
) grooved and edged with a brown 
\ sheath, notched with eight to a dozen 
teeth. The joints readily pull apart. 
These early, fertile plants scatter their 
Fic. 3, — Field Horsetail (Zqui- SPores to the winds and wither and 
. setum arvense). X 3. die in a few weeks. But later, from 
