crrERACE-F, 47 



!) to 12, about as long as the iiut, with the denticulations pointing 

 downwards. Kut obovate-ovoid, compressed, a little longer than 

 the flattened triangular subidate acuminated beak formed by the per- 

 sistent base of the style. 



Var. a, gemdna. 



Spikelets white, at length becoming reddish -white. 



Yar. ^, sordicla. 

 Spikelets pale reddish-brown. 



In spongy bogs. Not uncommon, and generally distributed, but 

 most abundant on the west side of Britain; possibly absent from a 

 few counties on the east side. Yar. 3 1 have from Torch Moor, Devon ; 

 Treleck, Monmouth; and Ballygown, co. Down, Ireland. 



England, Scotland, Ireland. Perennial. Late Summer. 



Stems 3 to 20 inches high in small united tufts ; the basal sheaths 

 generally short, and most of them leafless. Spikelets about \ inch 

 long, more numerous and much more slender than those of R. fiasca, 

 and placed in heads, which are flat or slightly convex at the top. 

 Bristles more numerous and shorter than in R. fusca, and barbed 

 downwards instead of upwards. Nut much narrower than in R. fusca 

 and with the beak narrower at the base and less abruptly acuminated. 



WJiite Beak-Sedge. 



German, Weisse Moorsimse, 



GENUS F.— BLYSMUS. Panz. 



Flowers perfect, arranged in several-flowered sessile spikelets dis- 

 posed on two opposite sides of the rachis, so as to be distichous. 

 Glumes of each spikelet imbricated all round the axis, all with flowers 

 in their axils except the 2 lowest, which are broader than the others 

 and empty. H3'pogynous bristles 3 to 6, included, or absent. Stamens 

 3. Style persistent, slender, not swoUen at the base ; stigmas 2. Nut 

 lenticular, plano-convex, gradually tapering into the persistent style, 

 crustaceous. 



Perennial herbs, differing from Scirpus only in the spikelets being 

 arranged in a short distichous terminal spike. 



The name of this genus is from /3\u^<j, I gush out, from the species growing near 

 springs and in wet places. 



