60 ERIOPHORUM. [class ill. oeder i. 



longer, lineav, triangular, channelled, smooth, round and sheathing at 

 the base, rough towards the point. Bracteas two or three, about the 

 length or longer than the peduncles, leafy, triangular, and rough 

 above, dilated and sheathing at the base, where it is dark brown, with 

 pale membranous edges. Spikes erect, or slightly drooping. Pedun- 

 cles simple, various in length, smooth, striated. Glumes lanceolate, 

 single-ribbed, membranous, brown with a pale margin. Seed shining 

 brown, triangular, terminating in an obtuse point, surrounded at the 

 base with an abundance of very long white shining hairs, forming large 

 beautiful and conspicuous heads, highly ornamented during the sum- 

 mer months. 



Habitat. — On moors, bogs, and wet meadows, common. 



Perennial ; flowering in April and May. 



This is distinguished by the more upright stem ; the spikes single on 

 the peduncles; when in fruit not pendulous, but nearly erect, much 

 larger, with the hairs longer ; the leaves narrow, round at the base, not 

 keeled, triangular above, and channelled on the upper side. 



7. E. ffra'cile, Roth. (Fig. 90.) slender Mountain Cotton-grass. 

 Stem erect, round, slightly angular above, smooth, leaves trian- 

 gular, gi'ooved, with a membranous ligula at the base, peduncles 

 short, hairs of the seed twice the length of the spike, bractea shorter 

 than the spikes. 

 English Botany, t. 2402. — English Flora, vol. i. p. 70. — Lindley, 

 Synopsis, p. 282. — Hooker, British Flora, vol. i. p. 32. 



Root fibrous, with slender underground stems, jointed, and enveloped 

 with the rudiments of leaves, which are thick and fleshy. Stem slen- 

 der, from six to eighteen inches high, striated, smooth, slightly angular. 

 Leaves shorter than the flowering stem, (which mostly bears only one,) 

 smooth, linear, triangular, keeled on the under side, channelled ou the 

 upper, striated, as are the sheaths at their base. Ligula lanceolate^ 

 entire. Bractea single, generally shorter than the spikes, leafy, stria- 

 ted, dilated and almost black at the base, with a pale thin margin. 

 Spikes from two to five, sessile, or on short jyeduncles, erect, or slightly 

 drooping. Glumes lanceolate, membranous, almost black, pale on the 

 margins, upper ones single-ribbed, the outer with three. Seed pale 

 brown, shining, elliptical, three-sided, obtuse at the apex, accompanied 

 at the base with white shining hairs about twice as long as the spike. 



This is the smallest and most slender of the many spiked Cotton- 

 grasses. 



Habitat.— On boggy mountainous situations. — Ben Lomond. R. D. 

 —Ben Lawers and the Clove J\Iountains, Scotland, in a micarious soil. 

 G. Don. — Cwm Idwell, North Wales. Mr. Wilson. 

 Perennial ; flowering in July. 



The foliage of the Cotton-grasses is much relished by cattle in the 

 early part of the season, but rejected by them when other and finer 



