CVPERACE.5;. 49 



fascicled. Leaves semicylindrical, not keeled, channelled above, not 

 rough on the edges or midrib. S2)ikelets 6 to 12, each 2- to 4-flowered, 

 arranged in an ovate compressed spike. Bract at the base of the 

 lowest spikelet with a green foliaceous tip, usually shorter than the 

 spike, but sometimes exceeding it. Glumes veiy dai'k chestnut, not 

 ribbed, the lowest one of each spikelet nearly as long as the spikelet. 

 Bristles 1 to (?, slender, deciduous, with their teeth ascending or 

 spreading. 



In salt marshes. Rare in England, where it occurs on the coast of 

 Anglesea, Carnarvon, Cheshire, Lancashire, and Durham. Not un- 

 common in Scotland, and there generally distributed round the coast, 

 extending to Orkney and Shetland. Rather local in Ireland, but 

 occurruig here and there on the coasts of the northern half of the 

 island. 



England, Scotland, Ireland. Perennial. Summer. 



Rootstock less extensively creeping than in B. compressus, and with 

 the stems closer together. Basal sheaths fuscous, leafless, the upper 

 sheaths with a ruslilike lamina 2 to 15 inches long. Stems 2 to 15 

 inches high. Spike ^^ to 1 inch long. Glumes much darker in colour 

 and more shining than in B. comjjressus, concolorous. Nut consider- 

 abl}' larger and more oval than that of B. compressus, and with the 

 bristles so deciduous that they often appear to be absent. 



Narrow-leaved BIysmus. 



German, Braune Simse. 



GENUS F/.— SCIRPUS. Linn. 



Flowers perfect, arranged in several- or many-flowered spikes, 

 which are sometimes solitary, at other times several or numerous, dis- 

 posed in a head or umbellate panicle, but never distichous. Glumea 

 of each spike imbricated all round the axis, all with flowers in their 

 axils, except the 1 or 2 lowest, which are broader than the others and 

 empty. Hypogynous bristles 3 to 1 2, generally 6, included or more rarely 

 slightly exserted in fruit, rarely absent. Stamens generally 3. Style 

 deciduous, wholly slender or swollen at the base, which in the latter case 

 is always persistent, and in the former sometimes so; stigmas 2 or 3. 

 Nut lenticular and plano-convex when there ai'e 2 stigmas, trigonous 

 or triquetrous when there are 3, in some cases tipped by the slender 

 or enlarged bases of the style. 



Perennial (rarely annual) herbs of various habit. 



The name of this genus is derived from a Celtic word signifying a cord, 

 VOL. X. II 



