E Q U I S E T U M palustre.
Marsh Horsetail.
CRYPTOGAM1A Filices.
G en. Char. Catkin composed of peltate scales,
flowering on their inside. Partial Calyx of 2
valves. Seeds numerous, naked, enfolded by 4
pollen-bearing filaments.
Spec. Char. Stems deeply furrowed, branched;
branches simple, erect, roughish, with simple angles.
Catkin terminal.
Syn. Equisetum palustre. Linn. Sp. PI. 1516. Sm.
FI. Brit. 1103. Buds. 448. With. 754. Hull.
233. Relh. 403. Sibth. 264. Abbot 222. Bolt.
F il. 64. t. 33. Raii Syn. 131. Ger. em. 1114.
/3.E. palustre, tenuissimis et longissimis setis. Dill, in
Raii Syn. 131.
y. E. palustre minus polystachion. Ibid. t. 5. f . 3.
T h i s grows in a black boggy soil not unfrequently, and is
readily known from the last by its fructification terminating
the leafy stems. The roots are perennial and creeping.
Stem branched throughout, deeply furrowed, with prominent,
roughish, intervening angles. Branches whorled, upright, various
in length, simple, jointed, deeply furrowed, with simple
intermediate angles, minutely granulated in the surface, but
scarcely rough to the touch. Catkin terminal, solitary,
blackish, cylindrical inclining to ovate; its scales at length
becoming widely separated. Dillenius has delineated, from
Buddie’s herbarium, a variety in which many of the upper
branches bear catkins, as well as the main stem.
The branched state of JE. limosum, t. 929, somewhat resembles
this, but has a much thicker stem, with about twice
the number of furrows, and those much more superficial than
in the species we are describing.