SOUTHERN RANGE OF EQUISETUM PALUSTRE. 



By Frank E. McDonald. 



IN a recent number of Rhodora the above species is mentioned 

 by C. B. Graves as growing on the Connecticut river a few 

 miles from the shore of Long Island Sound. The writer 

 adds: "A northern plant not hitherto reported, so far as I am 

 aware, south of northern Maine and the Vermont shore of Lake 

 Champlain." The plant grows in the vicinity of Peoria, which 

 would extend its southern range some distance beyond the Con- 

 necticut station. 



It was discovered here first, many years since, by Dr. Fred 

 Brendel, to whom it is credited in "Patterson's Plants of Illinois." 

 As far as I know, it is the only station in the state. It grows here 

 under the following conditions: Across the Illinois river from 

 Peoria, in Woodford county, the alluvial bottom lands extend 

 back for nearly two miles, ending abruptly in a chain of promi- 

 nent bluffs, probably the ancient banks of the river. 



These hills are honeycombed with springs, whose waters as 

 they reach the foot of the bluffs combine to form bogs, that pos- 

 sess a flora strikingly different from that of the hills above them 

 or the alluvial bottom into which they finally merge. The water 

 is very clear and cold, even in the warmest of weather. In these 

 springs, where the shallow water runs over a sandy, gravelly bot- 

 tom, our Equisetum finds a congenial home. It grows abun- 

 dantly and luxuriantly. Frequently, in company'of Nasturtium 

 officinale, there is such a mat of vegetation as to hide the water 

 completely. 



The fertile plant is often strictly simple in growth, without a 

 branch. When branches appear they are few in number and 

 short. Not so with the sterile plant. It often attains a height of 

 3 feet, and is profusely branched with long flexuous branches. 

 Intermixed with E. palustre is E. limosum, but it is a much 

 rarer species. It seems strange that this species of northern 

 range should be found in an isolated station down in the heart of 

 the Mississippi Valley. But the presence of some other plants is 

 equally strange, and emphasizes the northern character of the 

 flora of these cold bogs. I would mention Habenaria hyperborea % 

 Mimulus Jamesii, Lobelia Kalmii, Salix myrtilloides and Can- 

 dida, Eriophorum gracile, Scleria verticil lat a and Berula 

 angustifolia. 



