CR YPT OGAM I A Filices,
Gen. Char. Ccithin composed o f peltate scales,
dowering on their inside. Partial calyx of 2
valves. Seeds numerous, naked, enfolded by *
pollen-bearing filaments.
Spec. Char. Stem naked, very rough, branched at
the base. Sheaths black, with white, membranous,
lanceolate teeth. Catkin terminal.
Syn. Equisetum variegatum. Schleich. Catal. 21.
E. campanulatum. Poiret in Lam. Encycl. v. 5. 613.
E . nudum minus variegatum basileense. • Banh,
Pin. 16.
E. n. I67f
Prodr. 24, ~Theair. 250.
Hall. Hist. v. 3. 3.
F o r the discovery of this very distinct species of Equisetum
in Britain, we are obliged to Mr. G. Don, who gathered it,
m July 1807, on the sands of Barry on the sea cokst of An-
gusshire. ft is preserved iu Jacquin’s herbarium, which now
makes a part of Sir J. Banks’s rich collection, by the apt name
ot variegatum, a name peculiarly eligible, as adopted from the
synonym of C. Bauhin, the first discoverer of this plant, and
as be'ng that by which it is known in Switzerland. There is
a Swedish specimen in the Linnasan herbarium, confounded
vnthhyemale, t. 915, and in the FI. Suec. it is not distinguished
as even a variety, though both appear to grow in
Sweden. 6
The root is perennial, black, creeping, with very woolly
fibres.. Stems from 4 to 6 inches high, slender, deeply furrowed,
rough like those of E . hyemale ; in our plants decum-
ient or ascending, and zigzag, in Swiss ones erect and straight,
1 his «wherenee we conceive to arise from the different places
of growth, as in Carex incurva, t. 9-27, and jmcipolia of Al-
iionr, erroneously separated by some botanist's. Each Joint is
encircled with a little short black cup-like sheath, crowned
with a row of lanceolate white membranous teeth, by which
tne species is evidently distinguished from kyemale. The uppermost
sheath is very much larger than the rest. Catkin
short, ovate, blacker than in the hyemale, and on a more
slender stalk.