476 THE RUSH FAMILY. [Lumta. 



In dry pastures, woods, and heaths, throughout the northern hemi- 

 sphere without the tropics, and in some parts of the southern hemi- 

 sphere. Abundant in Britain. Fl. spring. In some specimens, L. 

 ereeta, Desv. (multiflora, Lej.), the peduncles are so shortened as to give 

 the inflorescence the appearance of that of L. spicata, but the outer 

 clusters are never quite sessile, and the perianth is always much larger 

 than in L. spicata. 



5. L. spicata, DC. (fig. 1081). Spiked W. Bather smaller than . 

 eampestris, and the flowers considerably smaller (about f line long), 

 in dense clusters, all sessile, forming an ovoid or oblong terminal spike, 

 ^ to near 1 inch long, and more or less drooping, the lowest 1 or 2 

 clusters often a little apart from the others, but always sessile within 

 a short leafy bract. 



An alpine species, common in northern and Arctic Europe, Asia, and 

 America, and in the high mountain-ranges of central and southern 

 Europe and Asia. Abundant in Scotland, very local in northern England 

 and North Wales, and unknown in Ireland. Fl. summer. 



LXXXVII. ERIOCAULEJE. THE ERIOCAULON FAMILY. 



Herbs, differing from Juncacece in their minute unisexal 

 flowers, in involucrate heads, membranous perianth, with the 

 inner segments inserted in a tube or in the female flower re- 

 placed by a pencil of hairs, and in their ovules .and seeds always 

 solitary in each cell of the ovary or capsule, and suspended 

 from the top, not erect from the base as in buzula. 



An Order, containing several genera and many species, for the most 

 part South American. In former editions of this work it was regarded 

 as included under Restiaceaz. 



I. EEIOCAULON. ERIOCAULON. 



Aquatic or marsh plants, with tufted leaves. Peduncles leafless, 

 with a terminal globular head of minute flowers ; the central ones 

 chiefly males, the outer ones chiefly females ; all intermixed with small 

 bracts, of which the outer ones are rather larger, forming an involucre 

 round the head. Perianth very delicate, of 4 or 6 segments, the 2 or 3 

 inner ones in the males united to near the summit. Stamens in the 

 males as many or half as many as the perianth- segments. Capsule in 

 the females 2- or 3-lobed, and 2- or 3-celled. Style single, with 2 or 3 

 stigmas. 



A large genus, widely distributed over the globe, numerous in South 

 America, and extending over that continent to the Arctic Circle, 

 general in tropical Asia, Africa, and Australia, but wholly wanting in 

 Russian Asia and Europe, with the exception of the single British 

 station. 



1. B. septangulare, With. (fig. 1082). Jointed K The slender 

 rootstock creeps in the mud under water, emitting numerous white, 

 jointed fibres, and tufts of linear, very pointed, soft and pellucid 



