34 
There are several varieties of Equisetums which bear their fruit on the 
end of the branchlets, in this they resemble Calamites, although the 
general arrangement in Equiseta is to bear the fruit at the termination of 
the main stem, 
III. 
A Letter from Boston, U.S., 
By E. W. Claypole, B.A., B. Sc., Corresponding Member. 
Read at the General Meeting, Dec. 5th, 1872. 
[Abstract.] 
" Boston like Bristol is laid out anyhow," (New York is laid out. on the 
the square) Building stone is dear in Boston. The neighbourhood 
affords none suitable for the purpose, the only kind occurring near the city 
being a very coarse red sandstone or conglomerate full of pebbles of red 
and greenish quartzy rock. It is used for foundations and other rough 
work, but cannot of course be tooled. A fine brown sandstone comes from 
Connecticut, and has been much used for frontages; a yet finer kind is now 
being introduced from New Brunswick. Granite, the common black and 
white kind is largely used for foundations and doorsteps, but is too expen- 
sive in working to be employed for building hor es, It is chiefly brought 
from Maine. The best and most beautiful, and at the same time not very 
expensive material, is the white and veined marble from Vermont. This 
is largely used for fronts, being put on over brick, as the Bath Oolite in 
Bristol, and sometimes polished. Not unfrequently it is used solid, and 
the blocks of white houses and public buildings have a very tasteful and 
clean appearance. They preserve their purity and brightness even in the 
heart of the city, because the almost exclusive use of anthracite coal com- 
pletely prevents the cloud of smoke that hangs over every English city of 
the same size, and also over the great manufacturing centres of the middle 
and Southern States where the bituminous coal is burnt. (It may be worth 
mentioning that the latter occurs chiefly on the Western and the former 
on the Eastern side of the Alleghany Mountains.) As a consequence of its 
comparative abundance, marble is much more commonly used here than in 
England for furniture and other common purposes. 
The ground on which the City stands is very flat and the soil is sandy. 
A very large part of it has been reclaimed from the sea, and the same 
