CLASS VI. ORDER III.] SCHEUCHZERIA. 529 



tapering at the base, and frequently without the lateral lobes, quite 

 smooth, dark green, paler beneath, changing in the autumn into bright 

 red, at the base of the footstalks and branches is a pale thin mem- 

 branous stipule^ lanceolate, mostly torn. Flowers in small distant 

 leafless whorls, on slender simple or divided branches, those flowers 

 bearing stamens only of six nearly equal roundish segments, green or 

 red, with a thin membranous margin. Stamens with ovate two celled 

 anthers, on short Jilaments, the fertile flotvers with the perianth of six 

 pieces, the three outer ones smaller, narrower than the three inner, 

 which are ovate, somewhat heart-shaped, thin, membranous, without 

 tubercles. Nuts broadly ovate, acutely three angled, and at the apex 

 the base somewhat obtuse, a dark shining brown colour. 



Habitat. — Dry, gravelly, or sandy pastures, &c. ; frequent. 



Perennial ; flowering in June and July. 



This is a much smaller plant than the last, possessing similar pro- 

 perties, and used for the same purposes ; it grows in dryer, more 

 barren places, and changes after flowering into a deep red or crimson 

 colour. Several varieties of this plant are mentioned as being found 

 on the Continent, having only one lobe at the base of the leaf, or 

 without, and also the lobes cut into two or three small ones; we have 

 not met with them, but it is probable they may be found, and perhaps 

 might cause some difliculty to the student in determining species. 



GENUS XXIV. SCHEUCHZE'RIA.— Linn. Scheuckzeria. 



Nat. Ord. Junca'gine.e. Richard. 



Gen. Char. Perianth persistent, of six pieces, ^wi/ters elongated, 

 upon very slender filaments. Capsules three to six, united at the 

 base, roundish, inflated, each two-valved, and one or two-seeded. — 

 Named in honour of the three Scheuchzers, Swiss Botanists. 



1. S. palus'tris, Linn. (Fig. 606.) Marsh Scheitchzeria. 



English Botany, t. 1801.— English Flora, vol. ii. p. 198.— Hooker, 

 British Flora, vol. i. p. 174.— Lindley, Synopsis, p. 252. 



Root branched, slender fibres, with creeping underground stems, 

 jointed, and more or less clothed in pale sheaths, which, when pulled 

 out, has a cottony appearance. Stem erect, solitary, simple, straight, 

 or waved, round, smooth, from six to twelve inches high, clothed be- 

 low in the dry pale membranous sheaths of the leaves. Leaves few, 

 long, roundish, rush-like, sheathing at the base, which has at the top a 

 pair of thin membranous lanceolate stipules. Liflorescence a terminal 

 raceme, of about six flowers, each on a peduncle^ elongated when in 

 fruit, and arising from the base of a bractea, the lower ones long and 

 leafy, sheathing at the base, the upper small, lanceolate, membranous. 

 Perianth of six equal narrow reflexed persistent pieces, pblong, acute, 



