VARIEGATED EQUISETUM, 
37 
what arcuate, giving the entire stem a sinuous appearance.— 
The figure represents a stout specimen of the New Brighton 
plant ; the four detached stems being portions of rather more 
elongate specimens : both the sheaths and internodes are stri- 
ated : the striae are few in number, six or eight may be taken as 
the average : under a microscope the cuticle precisely resembles 
that of the species already described : the ridges appear 
grooved, being margined on each side with a longitudinal 
series of minute flinty tubercles : in the furrows are two longitu- 
dinal series of stomata placed very near the ridges, indeed so 
near, that in stems dried in an immature state, they are frequently 
partially obscured by the ridges. The lower portion of each 
sheath is generally concolorous with the internode, the upper por- 
tion only being black ; this causes the sheath to appear much 
shorter than in the species previously described : the teeth 
are short, wedge-shaped, and most commonly without the 
setiform apex or bristle which distinguishes the species last 
described : their edges are membranous, occasionally black, as 
represented in the detached stems to the left of the figure, but 
usually white, giving the plant that variegated appearance from 
which its name has probably been derived. The catkin is small, 
apiculate, terminal and striated, as in the two preceding species ; 
its scales are few — from eighteen to twenty-five in number. 
The stem of this species is much less liable to 
become branched than either of the preceding, still 
this branching occasionally occurs : in the margin 
I have represented a New Brighton specimen bear- 
ing a branch ; the black colouring of the sheath 
in this specimen extends much lower than is usual, 
yet the teeth remain wedge-shaped. Specimens 
occasionally occur in the same habitat repeatedly 
branched, and much more luxuriant than the one 
figured at page 31. Of one of these in his own 
herbarium Mr. Wilson has kindly furnished the 
following description. 
“ I have some specimens of E. variegatum from New Brighton, 
opposite Liverpool, which are very much branched and very tall ; 
but even in these I can find only two branches at any one joint. 
