equisetum Bot.
(ɛkwɪˈsiːtəm)
Pl. equisetums, -a.
[a. L. equisētum (more correctly equisætum), f. equus horse + sæta bristle.]
A genus of plants called popularly Horsetail or Mare's-tail; the typical genus of the family Equisetaceæ.
| 1830 Lyell Princ. Geol. I. 101 The fossil ferns, equiseta, and other plants of the coal strata. 1847 Darwin in Life & Lett. (1887) I. 360 His oolitic upright Equisetums are dreadful for my submarine flora. 1873 Dawson Earth & Man vi. 129 Mares' Tails or Equisetums. |