—73— 



by locating Meniscium reticulation in Florida. Some time ago 

 he sent me, for identification, a single pair of fertile pinnae of 

 this species under the impression that they belonged to some 

 species of Acrostichum. Meniscium rcticulatum. however, is so 

 distinct in its manner of fruiting that there is no hesitation in 

 referring these pinnae to it. Since M. rcticulatum is only known 

 to be native in Mexico. West Indies and southward to Peru, 

 there seemed a possibility that the pinnae might have come from 

 a cultivated specimen or at least from a plant escaped from 

 cultivation, but Mr. Ferris informs me that the collector says 

 the fern grows wild somewhere in the everglades. We shall 

 endeavor to secure further specimens and information and to 

 definitely locate the plants, if possible. 



THE GENUS EQUISETUM IN NORTH AMERICA. 



By A. A. Eaton. 



FOURTEENTH PAPER. 



E. HIE MALE L. 



Stems single or cespitose, persisting 3 or 4 years. 3 inches to 8 

 feet high. 1 to 8 lines thick, with 6 to 40 angles, beset with 

 many cross-bands or 2-rowed tubercles of silex. Grooves nar- 

 row, bearing a single row of stomata on each side, usually beset 

 with cross-bands of silex. rarely with rosulae. often covered 

 with a thick coating of silex. which renders the stems smoother 

 in age ; sheaths of various form and structure, oftenest with 

 a black base and top. separated by a broad or narrow ashy band, 

 recurving and splitting in age. finally deciduous in sections ; 

 teeth long and flexuous. cohering into one or several groups by 

 means of small unicellular bristles at the tip. narrowly white 

 bordered, articulated to the sheaths and torn off by the growth 

 of the stem, or soon deciduous or in some varieties persistent, 

 flexuous or rigid: spikes oval, green or blackish, ending in a 

 firm point formed of abortive sporophyls. Central cavity three- 

 quarters the diameter of the stem, the vallecular small, verti- 

 cally oval, the carinal usually present. Carinal bast broad at 

 the surface, narrowed and extended within nearly or quite to 



