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After the hay is cut, cattle are pastured, and occasionally root-crops grown upon these islands, and they sometimes have large trees growing upon them. When the turf or peat has been cut, leaving water less than a yard deep, Equisetum limosum grows at once, and is followed by the second class of marsh plants mentioned above.
It is doubtful whether this be an Equisetum or not; the textures of the leaves agree best with that genus of any, being articulated one within another at each joint, which is only proper to this tribe. The longest of them are about 9 inches. Colutea Novae Hollandiae floribus amplis coccineis, umbellatim dispositis macula purpurea notatis.
To reduce the size of the spleen, the Greek athletes used certain beverages, the composition of which was not generally known; the Romans had a similar belief and habit Pliny speaks of a plant called equisetum, a decoction of which taken for three days after a fast of twenty-four hours would effect absorption of the spleen.
The cortical part of the root, dried and rolled up into quills, is sometimes brought to us. This is of a white colour, a weak, not very agreeable smell; and a durable bitter, lightly pungent taste. It is recommended as an alexipharmic. EQUISETUM palustre. HORSE-TAIL. The Herb. It is said to be a very strong astringent: it has indeed a manifest astringency, but in a very low degree.
We saw that the wool fibre, of which fur might be considered a coarser quality, possesses a peculiar, complex, scaly structure, the joints reminding one of the appearance of plants of the Equisetum family, whilst the scaled structure resembles that of the skin of the serpent.
That is what we burn to-day, the trunks of the wheel-jointed swamp trees. But their youngest great-grandchild is still with us, and shows, in its small way, what its great ancestors were like. You will find it along some railway bank, or in any damp woods. Country people who know it, call it Joint Grass or Horsetails; the books call it Equisetum. The drawing will show you what to look for.
And there began a growth of rushes and equisetum and potamogeton that ended only with the drying of the pond. It speedily became evident to the public mind that this time there was not simply one centre of distribution, but quite a number of centres.
The fruit is as big as a peppercorn, almost round, of a whitish colour, dry and tough, with a hole on the top, containing small seeds. Anyone that sees this plant without its seed vessels would take it for an Erica or Sanamunda. The leaves of this plant are of a very aromatic taste. Equisetum Novae Hollandiae frutescens foliis longissimis.
But sometimes these dimorphic species are seen to revert to the primary condition, developing a fertile cone at the summit of the green summer-stem. I have had the opportunity of collecting an instance of this anomaly on the tall Equisetum telmateja in Switzerland, and other cases are on record in teratological literature.
Both seem to be of rare occurrence, as I have not succeeded in getting any repetition by prolonged culture. Species, which generally bear their leaves in whorls, are also subjected to casual atavisms of this kind, as for instance the tall European horsetail, Equisetum Telmateja, which occasionally bears cones on its green summer stems.
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