20 TRiAND. MOMOG. 



generally longer than the cyme. Spikdcts very small^ numerous^, 

 greenish. Stigmas 3. Fruit with about G bristles. 

 6. ERIOPI-IORUM. 

 * Spike so'itary. 

 t Culm naked. 



1. E. (ilplmim (alpine Cotton-grass), culm triangular, leaves 

 much shorter than the sheaths, spike oblougo-ovate. E. B. 

 ^311. 



Hab. Mountain bogs, rare. First discovered in a bog 3 m. E. of 

 Forfar, but vi^hich is since drained, by Mr. Brown and G. Don. 

 Mountains in Breadalbane, Mr. Somerrille. FJ. June. 1/ . 



Root creeping, throwing up many upright culms, G — 8 inches high, 

 slender, with short subulate leaves from the long inner sheaths. 

 Spike very smull, few-flowered. Glumes ovate ferruginous obtuse, 

 nerve green, in the 1 — 2 outer and sterile ones extended into a 

 mucro. Stam. mostly 2, sometimes vvanting. Fruit surrounded 



' by erect silken hairs more than twice as long as the spike. 

 jt Gulm leaf-bearing. 



2. E. vagiiiatum {Hare's-lail Cotton-grass), culm above trian- 

 gular, spike ovate. Lightf. p. 90. E. B. i. 873. {E.cces- 

 pitosum. Host et Schrad.) 



Hab. Turf-bogs, not uncommon. — Pentland-hills, andDalmahoy-hill, 

 Yidmh., Maugh. Appin,Argyleshire, Capf. Carmichael. Ft. May. 11. 



Culms, when in flower, shorter than the leaves, when bearing seed 

 much elongated, 1 — 1 J foot high. Leaves almost subulato-seta- 

 oeous, compressed, channelled, sheathing ; upper sheaths with gra- 

 dually shorter leaves, the uppermost leafless and inflated obtuse. 

 .S'piA-e. large, ovate, acuminate, remarkably thin, membranaceous, 

 pellucid, blackish. Silkij hairs of the seed twice as long as the spike. 



3. E. capilalum {round-headed Cotton-grass)., culm rounded to 

 the top, s])ike almost sphaerical. E. B. t. 2387. 



Hab. Ben Lawi'rs, by the side of a rivulet near the limits of perpetual 



snow, G.Don. H. Jul. Aug. 1/. 

 Smaller than the last, 8 — 10 inches high, but stouter, with fewer leaves 



on the stem. Besides the different shape of the spike, the glumes 

 ■ are brown, more opaque, with the outer ones frequentlj^ much the 



largest, so a.s to resemble an involucrum. In other respects they 



are alike. It is, in all countries, a very alpine plant. 

 ** Spikes many, pedunculated. 

 A. E. grac'ile (slender Mount aiii Cot ton- grass), culms trigonous 



channelled, spikes longer than the involucre. E. B. t. 2402. 



fE. triquetrum, Host et Schrad.J 

 Hab. Boggy plnces in the micaceous soil of Ben Lawers and on Clova, 

 _ G.Don. Fl. July. 1/. 

 Much the slenderest of this division. Leavesi^w, narrow, much keeled 



at the back, grooved or channelled on the upper side. Spikes 2 — 3, 



obhing, at first sessile, then, pedunculated, longer than the involucre, 

 _ 6/M)iHfi- oblongo-ovate, greenish -brown, obtuse, membranaceou.'^ 



and ribbed. 



