Translations:Benutzer:Arian/Klett-Mini-Test/1618/en

It does not belong to the series of compost preparations; it stands for itself and is described by Rudolf Steiner in connection with the warding off of fungal diseases in the sixth lecture. For the preparation, field horsetail (*Equisetum arvense*) is the plant in question. It represents — alongside other equiseta up to the present day, alongside club-mosses and ferns — primordial forms of the plant kingdom. Precursor forms, such as those of the psilophytes, reach back to the end of the Silurian and the beginning of the Devonian — that is, to approximately the middle of the ancient era of the Earth (*Palaeozoic*). This is the time of the "Lemuris," the repetition within Earth evolution of the planetary pre-stage of "Old Moon." These primordial forms are water-born creatures that conquer dry land. The closeness to the element of water is shown — out of the abundance of the kindred flora of that time — by the genus *Equisetum*, which still exists today. This finds expression both in the site-conditions of its preferred habitats and in the intricate process of germination. One finds horsetail on loamy to clayey sites with waterlogging or impeding horizons.