CLASS III, ORDER I.] SCIRPDS. 51 



Stem is leafy nearly to the top. Involucre of several foliaceous leaf- 

 lets; occasionally there are only two, mostly longer than tlie spikelets. 

 Spikelets large, ovate, or oblong, sometimes single, mostly several 

 crowded, some of which are sessile, others on short stalks. Glumes a 

 reddish-hrown colour, covered with vei-y short silky hairs, acutely 

 notched at the end, with a mucro between the segments, which is the 

 termination of the keel. Stigman three. Fruit obovate, triangular, 

 smooth. Bristles varying in number from two to six. 



Habitat. —In salt-marshes, and the banks of rivers exposed to the 

 tide, frequent. 



Perennial ; flowering in July and August. 



The tubers are esculent, and Withering says they have been ground 

 and used instead of flour in times of scarcity. Cattle eat the herbage 

 with an apparent relish. 



7. S. canna'tus, Linn. (Fig. 74.) blunt-edged Club-rush. Spikelets 

 oblong, in a terminal cyme, longer than the involucre, stem naked, 

 round at the base, bluntly three-cornered above, stigmas two. 

 English Botany, t. 1983. — English Flora, vol. i. p. 61. — Lindley, 

 Synopsis, p. 281. — Hooker, British Flora, vol. i. p. 28. 



Roofs downy, submerged stems creeping, hard, and contracted. 

 Sheaths several, leafless, enveloping the base of the stern, which is 

 round, becoming triangular above, and terminating in an irregular 

 cymose inflorescence. Spikelets oblong, of a rusty-brown colour, single 

 or several clustered together. Involucre of one or more unequal leaves, 

 the longest erect, shorter than the inflorescence, Fi-uit ovale, with 

 several bristles at the base. 



This species approaches S. lacustris, in the base of the stem being 

 round, and in the similar arrangement of the inflorescence; and is allied 

 to S. triqueter, by the upper part of the stem being triangular, and the 

 style bifid. 



Habitat. — Rare. By the side of the Thames about London, and 

 the banks of the river Arun, in Sussex. 

 Perennial ; flowering in August. 



8. »S'. syhat'icus, Linn. (Fig. 75.) ivood Club-rush. Spikelets small, 

 ovate, in a lai'ge repeatedly compound terminal cyme, involucre of 

 several foliaceous leaflets, stem triangular, leafy. 



English Botany, t. 919. — English Flora, vol. i. p. 62. — Lindley, Sy- 

 nopsis, p. 281.— Hooker, British Flora, vol. i. p. 29. 



Root fibrous, with creeping underground stems. Stem triangular, 

 from two to four feet high, leafy. Leaves numerous, long, flat, linear, 

 somewhat rough at the edges and keel. Spikelets very numerous, 

 small, ovate, greenish. Glumes small, entire, acute, keeled. Involucre 

 of several long flat foliaceous leaflets. The terminal cymose inflores- 

 cence very large, repeatedly compound, its branches triangular, and 



