THE FERN BULLETIN 



VOL. VI. 



OCTOBER, 1898 



NO. 4. 



THE GENUS EQUISETUM, WITH REFERENCE TO THE 

 NORTH AMERICAN SPECIES. 



By Alvah A. Eaton. 



>HE ferns and allies of the past are of great economical im- 



portance, furnishing practically the whole flora of the 



Carboniferous forests, whence come our most extensive coal 

 deposits. It is a strange fact that orders of plants and animals 

 have always made their appearance in a burst of splendor, be- 

 cause the climatic conditions at their inception were favorable for 

 their best development; but as earth changed in successive eons, 

 it became necessary for her denizens to change location or habits, 

 or to die. The more staid did the latter, while the more adap- 

 tive suited themselves to circumstances and broke up into species. 



Thus we find that the present population of the earth is sup- 

 ported on the skeletons of ancestors. This is notably so with the 

 fernworts. Sigillarias and Lepidodendrons, rising to the rank of 

 forest trees, were the progenitors of ourlycopods and selaginellas 

 — now among our most humble plants — and the swamps of giant 

 Calamites of the past are at present represented by their puny 

 offspring, the marestails — of little value, either for use or beauty. 



The hyemalia are oddly interesting plants, and a clump with 

 dark green stems encircled with ashy sheaths is not wanting in 

 attractiveness, especially in winter. Silvaticum is very beautiful 

 when grown in shade. Very few, however, use the Equiseta in 

 their ferneries. Hyemale is used by cabinetmakers in Germany, 

 even to-day, to polish wood and horn, while arvense is in con- 

 stant use to polish wood and tin in the kitchen, as it formerly was 

 in this country. The buds of arvense are eaten by swine, and 

 have been used v by the poor in various parts of Europe for food, 

 from remote ages. This species is diuretic, and was formerly 

 used in chest and dropsical complaints; while the Chinese use 



SECOND PAPER. 



USES. 



