THE SEDGES— II 



By MAUD U. CLARKE 

 "With Photographs by HENRY IRVING 



THE Common Cotton Grass {Erio- 

 phorum angnstifolinm) to ordinary 

 observation certainly appears a 

 flowering grass, with tlie scheme carried 

 even further towards the realm of flower- 

 ing plants than in othei's. Yet the charac- 

 teristics upon examination place it dis- 

 tinctly as of the tribe of the Sedges and 



the stem. The leaves are sharply chan- 

 nelled at the base, the under side being 

 " keeled " in character, as shown in the 

 base of the broad blade to the left-hand 

 side of the illustration. In the blade 

 springing from this one and arching to 

 the right, we see another characteristic 

 of the Sedges in the way it is folded 



apart from the Grasses. In the first place flatly together longitudinally. This species 

 there is the solid versus the hollow stem ; is a tufted perennial plant of one foot 



and although the um 

 bellate cluster of cot- 

 tony tufts, so like an 

 elaborated mass of 

 stamens, is suggestive of 

 the flowering plant, yet 

 are they widely dif- 

 ferent in actual con- 

 struction and purpose. 

 F'or in the Sedges the 

 perianth, or collective 

 scheme of corolla and 

 calyx, is either absent 

 or merely represented 

 by scales or bristles. 

 The white tufts of the 

 Cotton Grass are a mass 

 of these bristles ex- 

 tended, sometimes as 

 much as two inches in 

 length, and of beauti- 

 fully silky texture, for 

 this species has perfect 

 flowers though of mi- 

 nute proportion. Some 

 of the spikelets are 

 fixed on the stem, 

 others project further 

 out on long smooth 

 stalks, the whole group, 

 varying in number from 

 three or four to twelve, 

 emerging from a large 

 membranous bract ex- 

 pressed at the top of 



COMMON COTTON GRASS. 



666 



in height, with erect 

 .flowering stems rising 

 I from the mass of grass 

 leaves. It flowers early 

 in the year through 

 May and June, and 

 although described as 

 common, I have not 

 found it growing in 

 many apparently appro- 

 priate places. As my 

 personal acquaintance 

 with the plant is con- 

 fined to the Long Valley, 

 Aldershot, I should feel 

 inclined to regard it as 

 being local rather than 

 common. 



In the wet hollows 

 of our woods, Sctrpns 

 sylvestris, or \\^ood Club 

 Rush, spreads its shin- 

 ing channelled leaves in 

 thick patches, the stout 

 stem of two or three 

 feet bearing the umbel- 

 late panicle of spikelets 

 (luring July and August, 

 It possesses a perianth 

 of six bristles, very dif- 

 ferent in character from 

 those of the Cotton 

 Grass, for the small 

 dark green spikelets 

 only show the little 



