GREAT EQUISETUM. 
()D 
the growth of Equiselum Jhiviatile [of Smith]. At Broadbank, 
four miles from Coin, in Lancashire, in a plot of ground which 
is appropriated to the growth of potatoes, we have the plant 
growing much higher than the fences. At Midge Hool, near 
I Todmorden, we have it growing very fine in a wood. I have 
been in the habit of visiting the ponds in Lancashire for the last 
sixteen years, and never met with it in any of them.”^*'^ Mr. 
I Luxford, in his ^ Reigate Flora,’ records a habitat of this plant 
j in these words, “ On Reigate hill, south side of Wray lane, far 
from any water.”f In ^ The Phytologist,’ he further explains 
that the site is a high mound of loose sandy rubbish which had 
accumulated at the entrance of a quarry ; and adds, About the 
year 1836, when I visited Reigate after a few year’s absence, I 
found this mound covered with a most luxuriant crop of Equi- 
setum Jliiviatile [of Smith]. ^ The locality is a very 
dry one ; the nearest water is the large pond in Gatton park, 
and that is quite half a mile distant.”]: Mr. Ilott having previ- 
ously recorded, in ‘ The Phytologist,’ a habitat for this species, at 
Norwood, makes the following observation on the mooted point. 
It was growing most plentifully on the steep bank, but much 
more sparingly on the small piece of wet ground between that 
and the pond, yet a few stems were found close to the water’s 
edge. There was not, however, a single specimen that actually 
grew in the water. It is worthy of remark, too, that by far the 
most luxuriant specimens were those which grew on the bank, 
those about the pond being much more stunted in appearance.”§ 
Mr. Sidebotham says, “ About Manchester it is one of our very 
common plants, growing in woods, meadows, and moist gravelly 
banks, but I never yet met with it growing in ivater. The 
nearest approach to the latter habitat is in the wood below Ar- 
den-hall, Cheshire, where it flourishes in a swamp to the height 
of six or seven feet.”l| 
The more closely I investigate the subject the more do I feel 
strengthened in my original vdew of the case, confessing, how- 
ever, that my means of judging are confined to two or three 
* Phytologist, 618. f Keigate Flora, p. 89. 
X Phytologist, 621. § Id. 648. j| Id. 649. 
