70 
EQLIISETACE/E. 
localities, of which I select that at Norwood, recorded hy Mr. 
llott, as the easiest of reference. The site is the brow of the 
hill below ‘ The Woodman ’ public-house at Norwood, on the 
road towards Dulwich ; the ground is partially waste, having 
apparently been excavated for brick-earth, and is sufficiently 
moist for little pools of water to collect in the hollows ; partially, 
however, it is cultivated, there being now (August, 1843) a fine 
crop of wheat ready for the sickle. The Equisetum is abun- 
dantly mixed with the wheat in every direction as far as I could 
see, but its growth is not luxuriant, few of its stems attaining 
half the height of the wheat, and many falling very far short of 
even that stature. While this fact, however, proves that it will 
grow in soil sufficiently dry to produce good wheat, its dimi- 
nished size affords little evidence on either side, for the constant 
disturbing of the roots in arable land produces an equally di- 
minishing effect on E. arvense, the stems in the hedges, where 
the roots remain untouched, often attaining a magnitude four 
times as great as those in the adjacent fields. On the unculti- 
vated land the most luxuriant growth, measuring four feet and a 
half or five feet in height, was on the banks wffiere all parts of 
the plant are comparatively free from being disturbed, and the 
soil loose, loamy and crumbling ; but the approach to the little 
pools, as well as to exposed dry and trodden parts, was marked by 
a gradual decrease in the size of the plant, until, in the immediate 
vicinity of the water and trodden paths, the stems were perfect 
pigmies, scarcely four inches in height, thus inducing the conclu- 
sion that, in this locality, water is prejudicial, if not fatal, to the 
existence of the plant, and that closeness and compactness of 
soil is very unfavorable ; a more extensive record of observations 
is still to be desired. 
It is hinted by Haller that the Roman people ate this plant, 
but the passage is so brief as to throw little light on the subject.* 
Considerable difference of opinion appears to prevail on the 
subject of its being eaten by animals. Mr. Watson, in the pas- 
sage above cited, states that horses graze on it. Mr. Gibson 
* Hoc fuerit Equisetum quod a plebe Romaiia in cibum recipitur. — Hall. 
Hist. iii. 1, No. 1675. 
