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In November, 1904, however, when searching some 

 ravines for Bryophytes, I came across E. scirpoides in 

 great abundance in a ravine at Lake Bluff, about a mile 

 north of the locality mentioned by Dr. Cowles. It was 

 apparently confined to a well-shaded slope facing the 

 north, and occurred in tufts and patches for a distance 

 of several rods. It w T as also more copiously represented 

 than I remember seing it in any station in Michigan where 

 I had previously collected it. The larger patches, two 

 or three feet across, make a compact turf in which thou- 

 sands of the little slender stems are represented. The 

 ravine is one of a great number of like kind cut deep 

 down in the thick drift by the small streams which drain 

 the narrow slope bordering Lake Michigan north of Chi- 

 cago. They are wooded, shady, and cool, and midway 

 to the bottom or below moist or even wet in spots. Water 

 oozes out of layers of sand or gravel in the prevalent clay 

 of the drift, sometimes forming small and perennial 

 springs. The finest growth of the Equisetum was in a 

 wet place, where such a lover of moisture as Fcgatella 

 conic a shared the ground with it. The stems were six to 

 nine inches high. In dryer spots the tufts are smaller, 

 with a half-dozen to a handful of stems, and with an 

 average height of three to five inches. 



Though primarily a mesophyte, E. scirpoides may en- 

 dure quite xerophyte conditions. I have found it at 

 Northpost, Mich., rooting in stumps and fallen logs, and 

 fruiting at the height of two inches. Close by, however, 

 was a growing terrace of peat-moss, built up by springs. 

 At Marquette I have collected it on rocky, wooded hills, 

 quite dry, but shady and cool. The plant in these ravines 

 is not alone in its mixed ecologic character, nor as a 

 representative of a more northern flora. In their upper 

 reaches the clay becomes hard and dry, with flora of a 

 more xerophytic aspect, in their lower parts the plants are 

 mesophytic. The red cedar, the white cedar, white pine, 

 paper birch, buffalo berry (Shepherdia Canadensis), grow 

 intermixed or in close proximity, and large feather-moss 

 (Hylocomhim triquetrum ) , common in pine woods and 

 pine plains to the north, carpets the ground in places. 



