EQUINOCTIAL STORM. 167 EQUITABLE ASSETS. on Meteorology (New fork, 1871, last edition 1883). EQUINOXES. Sometimes the equinoctial points (see Equinoctial) are called the equi- noxes. More co lonly, bj the equinoxes are meant the times when the sun passes those points, viz., March 21st mid Si'pl i'inl>or 22d, the former being called the vernal or s[)ring equinox, and the latter the autumnal. When the sun is in the equinoxes, the days and nights are of equal length all over the world. At the vernal equinox, the sun is passing from south to north, and in the Xmlhern Hemi- sphere the days are lengthening; at the autum- nal, he is passing from north to south, and the days are shortening. As the earth moves more rapidly when near the sun, or in winter, the sun's apparent motion is not uniform, and it happens that he takes longer to pass from the vernal to the autumnal equinox ili, in from the latter to the former. The equinoctial points are not sta- tionary, on account of precession (q.v.). See Ecliptic. EQUIPMENT, Bureau of (from OF. equiper, esqw/per, Fr. iquiper, to equip, from Icel. skipa, to arrange; probably connected with Icel. skapa, AS. seyppam, Goth, gaskapjem, OHG. seepfan, scaffan, Ger. sehaffen, to arrange, but influenced in popular etymology by Icel. skipa, to ship, from skip. AS. scip, Goth, skip, OIK!, seif. Tier. Scliiff. ship). A bureau of the United States Navy Department which is charged with the equip- ping and fitting out of vessels of the navy as far as regards stores not included under the heads of ordnance, steam engineering, con- struction, provisions and clothing, and medical outfit. This bureau formerly had charge of re eruiting, but all administrative matters con- nected with the personnel have been transferred to the Bureau of Navigation. See United States, Section on Navy. EQUIPOLLENT (Lat. cequipollens, from »7»»>i, equal + pollers, to have power). A term which, applied to lines, signifies equal in length and parallel in direction. There is a special geometry of such lines called equipollence. This term was used in alegbra by ( 'briquet (1484) to designate equivalent expressions. E'QUISETA'CEiE and E'QUISETA'LES. See Equisetum. EQ'UISE'TUM (Neo-Lat, from Lat. equisw- lum, cquiscetis, cquiseta, from equus, horse + swta, bristle). Horse-Tail Rush, or Scouring Rush. The only living genus of the group Equi- setales or Equisetaceie. This group is one of the three great divisions of the Pteridophyta. the other two being the ferns (Filicales) and the club-mosses (Lycopodiales) . The genus Equisetum is represented in the living Mora by about twenty- five species, which are the lingering remnants of an extensive race that was a conspicuous feature of the flora of Carboniferous and Mesozoic times. The living forms are mostly small and incon- spicuous, but they are very characteristic in ap- pearance. The stem is slender and conspicuously jointed, the joints separating easily: it is also grooved and fluted by small longitudinal ridges, and there is such an abundant deposit of silica in the epidermis that the plants feel rough. At each joint there is a sheath of minute leaves, the individual leaves sometimes being indicated only by minute teeth. Since these leaves contain no chlorophyll, ami evidently do not function as foliage leaves, the chlorophyll worl 1 on bj i he green stem, which i- either simple or pro- fusely lira lie I led. 1 'He nl 1 In ili 1 nielli .Inn- foal ore- of the group i- that thej aave distinct, spore-bi iring leaves 1 9porophj II- 1 . and thai i hese are arrai so as to form a cone : iike cluster or 'strobilus,' Each sporophyll in the trobilu consists oi a stalk-like portion bearing a peltate expansion. Beneath this shield-like expansion bang the spore- cases (spon ia i. H u.illy ranging from five to ten in number. The spores produced are all alike, so I'm! the group i- not one of those in « hich hetero iporj (q iui - at present, a) though il : ii |. led 1 bat -nine nl I lie ;| M • i.nl mbers of the group were heterosporous. The -pons have a verj interesting structure. In ad- dition to the two coats common to -pore-,, there is a third outer one consisting of two intersect ing spiral bands which are attached to the -pore only at I hen- point of intersection. On drying, the spiral hands In,, -en and become uncoiled, and when moistened they close again around the spore. I! means of these movements they serve to hook together the spores, and in this way the close proximity of germinating spores is secured. The significance of this proximity lies in the fact that the sexual plants (gametopiiytes) which the spores produce are unisexual — that is, one plant produces the male organs (antheridin i . and an- other produces the female organs (archegonia ) , a condition called dioecism (q.v.). Fossil FORM9. Fossil remains of ancestral Equiset urn are found in the form of casts of the in- ner pith cavity and molds of the external surface of the stem and branches in the Triassic and Ju- rassic rocks of many places in Germany, France, and the eastern United States. Many of those an- cestral forms were of great size, and the genus appears to have been an important element of the marsh flora of Triassic time. Certain sup- posed Equisetum remains from the Carboniferous eoal-measures can with difficulty be distinguished from the fragment- of the closely allied Catamites (q.v.). The Vosges in northeastern France, and the coal regions of Baden, Wiirttemberg, and Francunia, in Germany, and the Triassic coal region of Richmond, Va.. have furnished abun- dant fossil remains of these extinct plant- which present few differences from their modern repre- sentatives. Sehizoneura, an allied genus, is found in the Triassic and Jurassic of Europe. For il- lustration, see Plate of Pterioophytes. Con- sult: Solms-Laubach, Fossil Botany (Oxford, 1S01) ; Zittel, Schimper, and Barrois, "Traite de paleontologie," part ii. Paleophytologie (Paris. Munich, and Leipzig, 1S91). EQUITABLE ASSETS. Property of a debtor or decedent which cannot be reached by legal process, but which will be applied by equity to the payment of debts. Originally, only property held by the debtor or his personal representative by a legal title was applicable to this purpose, and in the earliest period of our legal history the rights of creditors were confined to the per- sonal property so held. Subsequently a testator might, by charging his real estate with the pay- ment of his debts, or by directing his executor to sell his lands for that purpose, render such prop erty liable in equity to the claims of his creditors. This did not have the effect of merging them in his general assets and of subjecting them to legal
