Descriptions of the Species. 
2 39 
spike longer than the barren frond. Larger and thinner than 
O. vulgatum, to which it is closely allied. 
O. reticulatum. Linn. Sp. i5i8;Kunze, Linnaea, 9-12; Pappe and 
Rawson, 48; Kuhn, Fil. Afr. 179 ; Hk. and Bkr. Syn. Fil. 447. # 
O. vulgatum, var. reticulatum. Mett. MS. 
Widely distributed ; growing in grass, or under bushes. All 
the specimens in the Cape Herbarium are from Natal, and Kuhn’s 
furthest south locality is Natal, though Lady Barkly says “through- 
out South Africa,” and Baker gives “Cape Colony.” 
Natal. — All over the colony (Wood), about the upper margins of bush 
over most of the colony (Buchanan), Cato’s Creek, Durban, in Natal 
Botanic Garden, Umbilo near Tongat (M‘Ken), Umlaas River (Krauss). 
Order II. — Equisetace^e. 
Genus XXXVIII. — Equisetum. Linn. 
The only genus in the order. Plants of very distinct habit, 
having no leaves, but with hollow-ribbed stems, coated with silica, 
rising from long solid underground rhizomes. The stems are 
jointed at regular distances, and at each joint the lower node is 
surmounted by a whorl of membranaceous teeth, surrounding the 
base of the next node (fig. e.). These teeth are mostly connate, 
except at the tips, and are equal in number to the ribs on the 
stem. Each rib is hollow in addition to the large central tube of 
the stem. In some species the stem is simple, in others similar, 
but smaller branches proceed in regular whorls, or, as in our 
species irregularly, from inside the sheath at the joints. The fertile 
cone is terminal on the stem or branches, and composed of 
numerous, peltate, many-sided, roundish receptacles (figs. b. c.), 
bearing on the under surface several sessile, one-celled, pouch-like 
capsules (Sporangia), one corresponding with each side of the 
receptacle, and each opening towards the centre. Spores uniform, 
each supplied with four hygrometric filaments known as elaters 
(fig. d.). On development the spores produce prothalia, on the 
under surface of which the sexual organs are to be found. 
