WATEK EQUISETUM. 
53 
lustre growing from the bottom of deeper water : ” — from this it 
is most evident to me that Linneus never contemplated describing 
a plant which seems less partial to water than most of its 
congeners. It further appears that Sir J. E. Smith was perfectly 
aware of the fact I am now endeavouring to establish, for he has 
written in pencil, under the specimens of E. Jluviatile in the 
Linnean herbarium, the word limosum and has added, 
probably at a later period, the word “ eerie. ” It may be 
presumed that he made this discovery subsequently to the pub- 
lication of the ‘ English Flora,’ as we find no mention of the 
identity thus made out. Lastly, and it may possibly have some 
weight with those who desire the establishment of a uniform 
nomenclature, I may add that the present plant is the E. fluvi- 
atile of the ^ Flora Danica,’ * of Wahlenberg’s ‘ Flora Lappo- 
nica’t and ^ Flora Suecica,’ J and of Dr. Dietrich’s lately 
published work on the Cryptogamia of Germany, § Wahlen- 
berg has taken great pains clearly to point out the error of 
vSmith’s nomenclature, and tells us that the species now under 
consideration is named Jluviatile in all the old Swedish herba- 
ria ; and he more particularly alludes to that of Zeirvogelius, 
the companion of Linneus in his Gothland journey, as one of 
the highest authority ; and he remarks that Smith’s Jluviatile., 
the E. Telmatem of Ehrhart, never grows in rivers, neither has 
it ever been found in Sweden or Lapland, in both which coun- 
tries the present species is most abundant. 
The medicinal properties of this plant have been so variously 
stated that they appear to contradict each other. With regard 
to its economical uses Linneus gives us, in his ‘ Flora Suecica,’ 
a very definite statement that in Sweden it is cut up as food for 
cattle, in order that the cows may give more milk ; || and in 
his ‘Lachesis Lapponica’ he observes that “the rein-deer fed with 
* Flora Danica, 1184 (according to Smith). f Flora Lapponica, 297. 
I Flora Suecica, 690. 
§ Deutschlands Kryptogamische Gewasche von Dr, D. Dietrich, p. 5, pi. 1, 
also, according to Smith, of Ehrhart’s ‘ Decades Plantarum Cryptogaihicariun 
ivc. 41, and ‘ Plantae Officinales’ &c. 290. 
II Dissecatur in pahulum Bourn, ut vacese lac copiosius ])rsBhcaiit. — Liiin. 
‘ Flora Suecica,’ p. 368, n. 390, of the 2nd edition. 
