CYPEUACE.E. 41 



Annual or perennial herbs, with the stem usually triangular, leafy 

 at the base or throughout, and ■with several unequal Icaflike bracts, 

 fonning an involucre to the terminal umbel or head. 



The name of this genus comes from the Greek word Kinrapoc, a reed. 



SPECIES I.— C YPERUS FUSCUS. Linn. 



Plate MDLXXVII. 



Eeich. Ic. Fl. Germ, et Helv. Vol. VIII. Tab. CCLXXX. Figs. 667, 668. 

 Billot, Fl. GaU. et. Germ. Exsicc. No. 85. 



Annual. Rootstock none. Stems numerous, ascending, trique- 

 trous, weak, not rigid. Panicle umbellato-corymbose, or frequently 

 contracted into a head; branches 2 to 7, short, sj^reading, simple, once 

 branched. Spikelets elliptical-strapshaped. Glumes 1-nerved, at 

 length spreading, chocolate-colour with pale margins and a green 

 midrib, or nearly all green. Stigmas 3. Nut triquetrous. 



In ditches and by the borders of ponds. Very rare. On the margin 

 of a peat pond on Shalford Common, near Godalming, Surrey, Mr. 

 J. D. Salmon. At Eel-brook Aleadow, Walham Green, Chelsea, 

 ^Middlesex ; but I believe now destroyed by the ground being drained 

 and built over. Mr. William Mudd reported that it had been found 

 on Guisboro' Moor, Yorkshire, but afterwards discovered that he had 

 mixed specimens of the Cyperus from the Surrey station with plants 

 collected on Guisboro' Moor. 



England. Amiual. Autumn. 



Stems numerous, 1 to 6 inches long in British specimens, but occa- 

 sionally a foot long in continental examples. Leaves grasslike, usually 

 shorter than the stems, and commonly one about a quarter of the 

 distance up the stem, sheathing their base. Involucre of 3 unequal 

 bracts resembling the leaves ; the lowest about 3 inches long in British 

 specimens. Spikelets i to |^ inch long. Glumes about ^V inch long, 

 keeled, ovate-oblong, obliquely truncate, so as to be subacute; keel 

 green, sometimes very narrow, sometimes with the green extending on 

 each side over the greater part of the glume. Nut very minute, whitish. 



Brown Cyperus. 



French, Soxichet brim. German, Schwarzbraunes Cypenis. 



SPECIES II.— CYPERUS LONGUS. Linn. 



Plate MDLXXVIII. 



Eeich. Ic. Fl. Germ, et Helv. Vol. VHI. Tab. CCLXXXII. 

 Billot, Fl. GaU. et Germ. Exsicc. No. 471. 



Rootstock thick, extensively creeping, without tuberous enlarge- 



