16 TRIAND. MONOG. 



This has often been confounded with the preceding species, but iitlcn- 

 tion to the above characters will remove every difficulty. This is the 

 larger plant of the two ; the cauline leaves are more linear, the 

 upper ones more frequently toothed or even pectinated. Flowers 

 flesh-coloured, not in heads but in loose corymbs, with fewer and 

 narrower bracteas. In the axil of the upper forks of the stem is 

 -always a solitary flower. The fruit is widely different in shape, 

 marked with five elevated ribs, and crowned with three unequal, al- 

 most foliaceous teeth. 



3. IRIS. 



I.I. Pseudacorus (yellow Water -Iris), leaves ensiform, each 

 alternate segment of the beardless perianth smaller than the 

 stigma. Lightf. p. 86. E. B. t. 578. 



HAB. Ditches and marshy places, common. Fl. July. If. . 



Flowers large, yellow. Roots large, horizontal, fleshy, very acrid. A 

 piece held between the teeth is said to cure the tooth-ache. In Ar- 

 ran they are used to dye black, and in Jura mixed with copperas, 

 to make ink. Lightf. 



4. SCHCENUS. 



* Culms leafy. 



}. Sch. albus (while-headed Bog-msli), culm triangular, leaves 

 lineari-setaceous, flowers terminal sub-corymbose as long as 

 the involucrum. Lightf . p. SI . E.B.t."985. 



HAB. Moors and boggy places, common. FL July, Aug. 7/ . 



Culm 6 8 inches high, leafy, leaves sheathing at the base. Each 

 head consists of three or four clusters of almost white flowers col- 

 lected into a sort of corymbus as long or longer than the involu- 

 crum, by which it is at once distinguished. Bristles eight or ten at 

 the base of the fruit. Stam. two or three. 



** Culms naked. 



2. Sch.nigricans (Hack Bog-rush), culm rounded, spikelets of 

 flowers collected into an ovate cluster, involucrum of two 

 leaves, the exterior one longer than the flowers. Lightf. p. 86. 

 E.B. t. 1121. 



HAB. Moors and boggy places, common. Fl. June, July. I/.. 



Culms about a foot in height, the base sheathed with the black rem- 

 nants of the former year's leaves. Leaves setaceous, rigid, gene- 

 rally shorter than the culms. Spikelets several, dark, shining, pur- 

 plish-brown, almost black at the base of the glumes. Leaflets of 

 the involucrum subulate, dilated at the base and dark-brown, the 

 upper part greenish, one much shorter, the other generally much 

 longer than the flower. 



3. Sch. compresms (compressed Bog-rush], culm roundish, spike 

 distichous shorter than the single involucrum, spikelets many- 

 flowered, leaves plane. Lightf. p. SI. E.B. . 791. (Scirpus 

 Caricis. Willd. c-t Host. Carcx uliginosa. L. 



HAB. Bogs, rare. By the side of lochs in Hay, Lightf. Dumbarton 



