CYPERACEJE. 45 



or once or twice compound ; spikclets arranged in roundish heads on 

 the ultimate branches of the partial panicles. Spikelets nearly j inch 

 long, with 5 or 6 pale chestnut glumes; the 3 outermost short, oval, 

 hari'cn; the next 2 or 8 longer and more lanceolate and commonly 

 flower-bearing, but usually only one fruit is perfected in each spikelet. 

 Anthers usually 2, apiculate. Nut ovate-ovoid, gradually acuminate- 

 acute, very shortly beaked, chestnut, about }. inch long, the outer rind 

 hard and brittle, the inner portion thicker and spongy. 



Fen Sedge. 



French, Gladie marisque. German, Deutsche ScJmeide. 



In the undrained fens near Cambridge this plant used to be so common that it was 

 nsed in that town for lighting fires. It serves also for thatching instead of straw, 

 and often grows in such quantities in pools as to form floating islands. It was 

 considered hurtful to cows. It is stUl cut as a crop in the Fens. 



(?^iVZZS/F.— RHYNCHOSPORA. Vahl. 



Flowers arranged in few-flowered spikelets disposed in heads or 

 umbellate panicles, which are terminal, and commonly there are a few 

 lateral ones below the terminal one. Glumes of each spikelet 5 to 7, 

 imbricated all round the axis, not keeled, 2 or 3 of the upper ones 

 with flowers in their axils, lower ones smaller and empty. Lower 

 flowers perfect, the uppermost one frequently male or imperfect. 

 Hypogynous bristles usually present, 3 to 6, included. Stamens 2 

 or 3. Style deciduous or persistent, the lower part dilated and conical 

 at the base, which at least is always persistent; stigmas 2. Nut lenti- 

 cular, biconvex, crustaceous, crowned by a beak or tubercle formed 

 by the persistent base of the style. 



Perennial herbs with narrow leaves and slender leafy stems and 

 foUaceous bracts. Spikelets few, brown or chestnut, rarely whitish. 



The name of this genus is derived from the two Greek words piiyxog, a beak, and 

 avopa, seed — the permanent base of the style forming a beak to the seed. 



SPECIES I.— R HYNCHOSPORA PUSCA. Bdm. & ScJmltes. 



Plate MDLXXXI. 



Beich. Ic. Fl. Germ, et Helv. Vol. VIII. Tab. CCLXXXV. Fig. 677. 

 Billot, Fl. Gall, et Germ. Exsicc. No. 25G1. 

 Schoenns fascns, Litm. Sm. Engl. Bot. No. 1575. 



Not casspitose. Rootstock extensively creeping. Stems solitary, 

 placed at some distance on the branches of the rootstock, trigonous 



