1026 



THE EQUISETUM FAMILY. 



Spike terminating in a short point or minute cone. 

 Stems usually simple. Whorled branches none or 

 very rare. 

 Stems tall, with numerous (usually 15 to 20) stria 



and sheath-teeth 7. Rough E. 



Stems low and slender, often tufted, with few 



(usually 8 to 10) stria? and sheath-teeth ... 9. Variegated E. 

 Stems, at least the central one, with whorled branches. 



Striae and sheath- teeth few (usually 8 to 12) . 8. Long E. 



1. Great Equisetum. Equisetum Telmateia, Ehrh. (Fig. 1249.) 

 {E.flumatile, Eng. Bot. t. 2022.) 



The fruiting stems appear alone early 

 in spring, they are quite simple, 8 or 10 

 inches high, as thick as a finger, of a pale- 

 brown colour ; the sheaths rather loose, 

 an inch long or more, completely cover- 

 ing the stem from one joint to the next, 

 of a dark brown, marked with 20 to 30 

 or more longitudinal stria?, and fringed 

 with as many long, subulate teeth, or 

 half as many, these teeth being often 

 joined 2 and 2 together. Spike fully 2 

 inches long, the lower whorls of scales 

 often distinct. Barren stems appearing 

 after the fruiting ones have withered 

 away, often several feet high, white, with 

 the tips of the sheaths black ; the long, 

 crowded, slender branches very nume- 

 rous in each whorl. 



In marshy, shady, wet, or gravelly 

 places, in temperate Europe, not extending northward into Scandinavia, 

 nor perhaps southward into Spain, but eastward to Greece and the 

 Caucasus, and thence all across Eussian Asia, and in North America. 

 Common in the greater part of England and Ireland, but not pene- 

 trating far into Scotland. Fr. early spring. 



Fig. 1249. 



2. Field Equisetum. Equisetum arvense, Linn. (Fig. 1250.) 



(Eng. Bot. t. 2020. Common Horsetail.) 



Fruiting stem simple, thick, 8 or 10 inches high, and dying before tlie 

 barren ones appear, as in the great JS., but the sheaths are seldom above 



