168 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 
leaf; the margins and keel strongly serrulated. Bracts sheath- 
ing, leafy, and gradually becoming smaller upwards, with their 
points triangular, and margins and keel serrulated. Cymes on 
variable peduncles, axillary and terminal, with spikelets clustered 
in pedicelled heads. Scales or glumes five, pale brown; lower 
ones short, ovate, obtuse and barren; upper oblong-lanceolate, 
and flowering, one staminate and one fertile. Stamens two, with 
apiculate anthers. Styles three. 
The plant was not far enough advanced for me to get the nuts 
for examination, but they are said to be “ small, ovoid, trigonous 
beaked, and brown.” 
The principal difference between this plant and the description 
given in “The Student’s Flora” is in the bracts, which are 
described as setaceous, whereas in the Bull Loch specimens they 
are in every respect similar to the leaves, only smaller. Whether 
the fact of it growing in a loch instead of in bogs and marshes, 
the habitat hitherto recorded for it, has anything to do with the 
extra development of the bracts it would be difficult to say, but it 
is possible the difference in its habitat may modify it to a certain 
extent. 
As to the question whether the plant has recently made its 
appearance in the loch or been there for a considerable length of 
time, I think the evidence is in favour of the latter theory. It 
seems likely to have been at one time fairly plentiful in 
Scotland, but now becoming extinct. We would, at least, infer 
this from its present distribution over Scotland, since it is found in 
Sutherlandshire in the north, and in Berwick and Wigtown shires 
in the south. It is also said to be local in England, although 
found in a number of counties. This would indicate that it is 
becoming extinct more rapidly in the northern country. Its 
growing in so many spots in the Bull Loch also favours the idea 
that at one time it has been quite plentiful there, but is now 
becoming exterminated ; and I am inclined to think Phragmites 
may have something to do with this, as this plant is growing in 
great profusion along all that side of the loch, and seems to leave 
very little room for anything else to grow, 
