06 
FERNS. 
[Equine turn. 
6 .— EQUISETUM PALUSTRE. 
MARSH HORSE-TAIL. 
(Plate 5, fig. 12.) 
Cha. — Stem erect, naked or branched, rough. Sheaths long, 
loose. Teeth few and long. 
Syn. — Equisetum palustrc of all English Botanists. — Equisetum nodosum, 
Schr. — Equisetum ramosum, Schl. 
Fig. — E. B. 2021 — Bolt. 35. — Flo. Dan. 1183. — Lob. Icon. 795. — Oer. Her. 
1114. — Schk. 108, 109. 
Des. — lloot creeping. Stem upright, branched throughout, 6 to 
12 inches high, dark green, deeply channelled. Branches 5 sided, 
simple, ascending, 6 to 10 in a whorl, a less number and shorter 
branches upwards. Catkins terminal, cylindrical, tapering, on a 
long stalk, erect, found in May and June, sometimes before the 
branches, at other times appearing long after the stem becomes 
branched. Sheaths large, loose, with a few long tapering black teeth. 
( dlpinum.) smaller, upper branches abortive, 
y (polystachion.) upper branches elongated and fruitful. 
The second variety is always found in such situations as convince us that its 
peculiar conformation arises from its being nipped by frost or cropped by 
cattle, especially as when thus proliferous, tho main stem is almost always 
injured at the top ; a proof that here, as often is the case with Flowering 
Plants, the early flowers being by any cause destroyed, the plant makes an 
effort to repair the loss at a later season of the year by producing others. 
Sit. & IIab. — Very common in ponds, wet valleys, water-courses, &c. 
/3: — Breadalbane Mountain, Perthshire, at 3000 feet high, Mr. H. C. Watson, 
y. No certain habitat of this can be given, because it is an accidental state of 
the plant, and not a permanent variety. I have often found it in Richmond 
Park, Surrey, and by the side of the Lea River at Stratford, Essex. 
Geo. — Common throughout Europe, and in North America. 
7. — EQUISETUM VARIEGATUM. 
VARIEGATED ROUGH HORSE-TAIL. 
(Plate 5, fig. 14.) 
Cha. — Stems procumbent, rough. Sheaths black at top. Teeth 
few, white, and persistent. 
Syn. — Equisetum variegatum, Willd., Schl., Smith, Hook., Mack. — Equise- 
tum arenarium, of Authors . — Equisetum tenue, Hopp. 
Fig. — E. B. 1987. 
Des. — Root very woolly. Stem branched at the base only, rather 
procumbent in habit, 4 to 6 inches long, of a green color, rough 
and channelled. Catkins terminal, ovate, at first black and sessile, 
