518 
EILTCES. 
'[Ojjltiof/lossum. 
and more fleshy in texture than in O. reticulatum , with much longer 
areolae without any included free veinlets. Fertile stout, 2-6 in. long, 
with a short peduncle, arising from the surface of the sterile segment. 
Mauritius and Seychelles, in the hill-forests, rare. Also Bourbon, Madagascar, 
Tropical Asia, and Polynesia, not African. 
Order CIX. EQUXSETACEiE. 
Fructification consisting of minute 1-celled capsules (sporangia), 
which dehisce by a vertical slit and are placed 6-9 together round the 
under surface of stalked peltate scales, of which many are crowded on 
the end of the stem to form a bractless terminal cone. Spores nume- 
rous, uniform, very minute, each furnished with 4 spiral threads 
thickened at the tip (elaters) and falling to the ground to give rise to a 
prothallus, which bears antheridia and archegonia as in Filices. — 
Bootstock wide-creeping, subterranean ; stems cylindrical, distinctly 
jointed, hollow except at the nodes, distinctly ribbed, each rib ending at 
the node in the tooth of a sheath, simple or bearing whorls of the 
branches, the fruit cones solitary and terminal. Distrib. Cosmopo- 
litan. Species 25. 
1. EQUXSETUM, Linn. 
The only genus. Characters and distribution of the order. 
1. E. ramosissimum, Desf. FI. Atlant.ii. 398. Very variable in 
stature and habit. Stems densely tufted, scabrous, firm in texture, 
erect or decumbent, 1-3 feet long, simple or furnished with few or 
many solitary or whorled branches. Bibs of the main stem 6-20, of 
the branches 4-6. Sheaths dilated ; teeth linear-cuspidate, with a 
deciduous point, nearly black. Cone of fruit oblong, apiculate, about \ 
in. long. E. elongatum, Willd.j Bojer, Kort. Maur. 426. 
Mauritius, on the borders of the Grand Riviere and at the Reduit cascade. Cos- 
mopolitan in the tropical and warm temperate zones. 
Order CX. LYCOPODIACE^. 
Fructification consisting of small uniform 1-3-celled 2-3-valved 
capsules (sporangia), which are solitary and sessile in the axils of the 
leaves, and contain copious minute spores without elaters, which give 
rise to a prothallus which bears antheridia and archegonia, as in 
Filices . — Stems with a vascular axis, erect or trailing, branched dicho- 
tomously or pinnately, bearing usually crowded multifarious small 1- 
nerved leaves, the capsules placed either in the axils of ordinary leaves 
all down the stem or in the axils of modified upper leaves (bracts) 
so as to form a special terminal spike ; vernation not circinate. Dis- 
trib. Cosmopolitan. Species 100. 
Capsule 1-celled, 2-valved 1 . Lycopodium. 
Capsule 3-celled, 3-valved 2. Psilotum. 
