52 FLOWERS OF THE BOGS AND MARSHES 



flowers, like other Cyperaceae, are anemophilous, but insect visits are 

 not excluded. 



The fruit is a 3-sided nut, which falls to the ground when ripe, 

 being indehiscent. 



This handsome sedge is a peat-loving plant growing in peat soil. 



Cyperus, Theophrastus, is from the Greek for a kind of rush, and 

 the second Latin name means long. Galingale is called Cypress, 

 Cypress-root, Galangal. 



The roots are eatable, aromatic, bitter, and were formerly used as 

 a medicine. 



ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: 



318. Cyperus longus, L. Stem triquetrous, tall, leaves lanceolate, 

 flowers in umbels, lax, glumes red with a green keel. 



Common Spike-rush (Eleocharis palustris, Roem. and Schult.) 



The antiquity of this plant is shown by its occurrence in the Pre- 

 glacial deposits of Pakefield, Suffolk, early Glacial beds at Beeston, 

 Norfolk, Interglacial, Late Glacial, Neolithic, and Roman deposits at 

 Silchester. At the present day it is found in the Arctic and N. Tem- 

 perate Zones in Arctic Europe, North Africa, N. Asia, N. India, and 

 N. America. It is found in every county in Great Britain, except 

 Montgomery, as far north as Sutherland, and up to 1200 ft. in York- 

 shire, as well as in Ireland and the Channel Islands. 



This is a typical marsh plant, growing along the margins of watery 

 wastes, and covering large areas, with Arrowgrass, Sedges, and other 

 paludal species. It is also common in wet meadows, bordering streams, 

 and around ponds and pools. Common Spike-rush is a true hygro- 

 phyte. 



The root is creeping, giving forth several leaves and stems in a 

 clustered manner, and the plant has a tufted grass-like habit. The 

 stems are stout or slender, flattened at the margin, with numerous 

 leafless sheaths, the glumes beardless, lance-shaped and acute at the 

 base, membranous and blunt transversely. 



The flowers are in terminal spikes, round, reddish -brown, oval, 

 naked, with lance-shaped, acute bracts or leaflike organs at the base, 

 the lowest glume half-clasping the spike, with anthers which come to a 

 point. The nut is inversely egg-shaped, plano-convex, the margins 

 smooth, with style egg-shaped below, shorter than the 4 bristles. 



Common Spike-rush is 8 in. in height. The flowers are in bloom 

 in July. The plant is a perennial, propagated by suckers. The flowers 



