NUDIFLOR.E 349 



the common Branched Bur Reed. It is found in 

 Ireland. 



Ponds, ditches, canals, streams, and river-banks are 

 the habitat of this species. It is found in the fresh- 

 water aquatic formation in waters relatively rich in 

 mineral salts, in slowly-flowing waters, in the reed- 

 swamp association. 



Erect in habit this plant is not so large as the 

 common species, from which the simple inflorescence 

 (hence simplex) at once serves to distinguish it. The 

 stem is simple, erect, or ascending. The rhizome is 

 creeping, the stem being above the waterline so that 

 the plant is half-submerged. The erect leaves are 

 long, sometimes floating, keeled, triangular at the 

 base, the sides flat. The sheath is not inflated but 

 slightly furrowed. 



The flowers are in spherical heads in a long 

 raceme, each head rather distant, and not so 

 numerous as in the common species. They are all 

 stalkless, except those at the base, which are female, 

 the males being above. 



The perianth has three to six segments, which 

 are sepaloid, and there are in the yellow male flowers 

 three to six stamens, which are alternate with the 

 perianth-segments when equal in number. There 

 are one or two carpels in the larger female flowers 

 with a single ovule, pendulous near the base of the 

 ovary. The stigma is linear to awl-like. The style 

 is short. The fruit is one-celled, slightly stalked, 

 drupaceous, elliptic to spindle-shaped, narrowed both 



