1015 



land of the county. First found by myself in considerable plenty in 

 a low meadow at Ape's Down, on the road from Newport to Yarmouth, 

 about two miles west of Carisbrooke, Aug. 10, 1839. Meadow below 

 Carisbrooke Castle, on the west side, but in extremely small quantity, 

 Oct. 1839. Not now to be found there. In profuse abundance in a 

 low marshy meadow, called Castle Mead, at the extremest south point 

 of the island, Sept. 10, 1839. For a further account of these stations 

 see Phytol. i. p. 131. I question much if the Cyperus is now to be 

 found at the Ape's-Down station, at least in any quantity, as the mea- 

 dow was about to be drained a few years back, and flowering speci- 

 mens were not often procurable latterly when the grass began to be 

 regularly mown for hay ; still I have not visited the spot for some sea- 

 sons past, and speak on conjecture alone. But at Castle Mead this 

 most beautiful plant may be annually collected in any quantity, which 

 was hardly the case till within these last three or four years, as the 

 former occupier of the land invariably cut it down as fodder with the 

 other marsh herbage about the time when it was in perfection. The 

 Castle Mead now forms part of the property of my friend George 

 Kirkpatrick, Esq., of Windcliff, Niton, who not only allows the Cype- 

 rus to grow unmolested by the scythe, but in his zeal for its preserva- 

 tion has fenced in that part of the meadow, so that by his care and 

 liberality a never-failing supply of specimens is effectually secured to 

 all who wish to procure them at the proper season, which is from 

 about the middle of August to the end of September or beginning of 

 October, not July, as most of our books give for its flowering time. 

 The plants here grow as thick and close together as reeds, and with 

 their bright green, polished stems and leaves, long, gracefully curved 

 involucral bracts, and ample, elegantly drooping panicles, with digi- 

 tately spreading spikelets, of the richest chestnut and green, call to 

 mind the idea of some tropical inmate of the stoves and conserva- 

 tories.* Many of the individuals exceed four feet in height, and one 

 amongst others of equal elevation, that I measured in October last, 

 was four feet eight inches from the ground to the base of the panicle, 

 which latter might be about a foot higher ; the largest of the three 

 very unequal involucral leaves being commonly nearly two feet in 

 length. I have hitherto uniformly failed in procuring ripe seed of 

 Cyperus longus in this station ; the locality is probably too wet, and the 



* If I mistake not, C. longus is the largest and handsomest European species of 

 its genus, from which the much taller Papyrus of the ancients (P. antiquorum), found 

 in Calabria, is now removed. 



