branches which bear the female heads, and also on the termination of 
the main stem itself above the highest branch, falling off after flowering 
and leaving the branch bare above the heads of fruit which are nearly ~ 
1 inch in diameter. Fruit } inch long, dark olive, the height from the — 
broadest part to the apex not much greater than the extreme width — 
of the fruit; the beak or permanent part of the style about one-fourth — 
of the length of the fruit. 
6 ENGLISH BOTANY. | 
5 
: 
Branched Bur-reed. 
French, Rubanier rameux. German, Astige Igelskolbe. 
Pirate MCCCLXXXVIII. 
Reich. Ic. Fl. Germ. et Hely. Vol. IX. Tab. CCCXXY. Fig. 750. 
Billot, F\. Gall. et Germ. Exsice. No. 852. 
SPECIES I—SPARGANIUM SIMPLEX. Iuls. | 
S. erectum, var. 5, Linn. Spec. Pl. p. 1378. | 
{ 
i 
Radical leaves linear, usually stiff, rarely floating, in the former 
case rather sharply keeled, and triangular at the base, with the lateral 
faces flat; the stem-leaves with their sheaths not inflated. Flowering 
stem erect, stiff, simple. Flower-heads in a raceme. Female flower- 
heads 2 to 4, stalked, terminating the peduncles of the raceme, the 
uppermost one generally sessile upon the rachis itself. Male flower- 
heads 2 to 5, sessile on the upper part of the rachis of the raceme. 
Stigma linear-subulate. Fruit shortly stipitate, oblong-fusiform, with 
a conical top, gradually acuminated into a long beak. Leaves green, 
not pellucid, at least at the apex. 
In ditches and shallow water, by the sides of ponds and pools, or in 
deep water, and then often barren, and with floating leaves. Rather 
common, and generally distributed, except in the north of Scotland. 
England, Scotland, Ireland. Perennial. Summer. 
S. simplex has much the habit of S. ramosum, but is a smaller 
plant, rarely above 18 inches or 2 feet high, with the leaves about 
4 inch broad, of a yellowish green, and with the lateral faces at 
the base on each side of the keel flat, not concave. Male head 
yellow before expansion. Female heads usually on a peduncle abov 
the axil of the bract; the lowest peduncles in fruit 1 to 3 inche 
long; fruit-heads about } inch across. Fruit about } inch long, bu 
much more slender than in §. ramosum, and equally attenuated a 
each end, the beak about $ of the length of the fruit. The stalk no 
half the length of the part which contains the seed. 
When growing in deep ditches, canals, or slow-running rivers 
S. simplex has the leaves floating, and not distinctly triangular at th 
