PERNS OP GREAT BRITAIN. 149 



Cochin-China by the name of Mahoanff, and are called 

 Chwostch by the Russians. The Horsetails are found 

 in every latitude from the equator to the poles, abound- 

 ing in the tropical parts of America and Asia, and at the 

 Cape of Good Hope, but becoming rare as we advance 

 towards the polar circles. 



Our native species were, by the old writers, termed 

 Shave-grasses, and as this Corn Horsetail has much of 

 the roughness given by the particles of flint, and as it is 

 the most frequent species, it is probably the plant sold 

 in Queen Elizabeth's time by the " Herbe-women of 

 Chepeside," under the names of Shave-grass and Pewter- 

 wort, or Vitraria, though it would doubtless have been 

 considered inferior to the E. hyemdle, which Gerarde 

 calls " the small and naked Shave-grass, wherewith 

 fletchers and combe-makers doe rub and polish their 

 worke." It was very serviceable in the kitchens of 

 olden times, and was doubtless used for cleaning the 

 wooden spoons and platters ; the " breen" of our fore- 

 fathers, as well as the " garnish " of pewter. Although 

 in early days the tables of the opulent were served with 

 silver, yet in humbler households wooden articles were 

 commonly used at the daily meals, until the fifteenth 

 and sixteenth century, when pewter came into general 

 use among the higher classes; though not until the 

 beginning of the eighteenth century were the articles 

 made from it suflBciently cheap to admit of their being 

 seen at any save the rich man's table. Harrison, refer- 

 rmg to this in 1580, says that in some places " beyond 

 the sea, a garnish of good flat pewter of an ordinarie 

 making is esteemed almost so pretious as the like num- 



