50 



ENOI.ISII BOTANY. 



Section I.— (II)ELROCHARIS.* E. Broicn. 



Spike solitary, terminal, ^\^tllo^t a leafy bract at the base. Hypo- 

 g}Tious bristles 3 to 6, rarely absent (?). Nut crowned with a 

 tubercle formed by the diluted persistent base of tlie style, which is 

 separated from tlie nut by an articulation. 



Stem slender or rather stout, leafless, the basal sheaths without 

 any lamina. 



SPECIES I.-SCIRP US ACICULARIS. Linn. 



Plate MDLXXXV. 



Bekh. Ic. PI. Germ, et Helv. Vol. VIH. Tab. CCXCIV. Pig. C95. 



(H)Eleocharis acicularis, Sm. Kunth, Enum. PL Vol. II. p. 141. Bah. Man. Brit. 



Bot. ed. vi. p. 371. Eool: & Am. Brit. PI. ed. viii. p. 492, et Auct. Plur. 

 Isolepis acicularis, Schleclit, Fl. Berol. Vol. I. p. 3G. 

 Scirpidium aciculare. Nces. ab Esenb. in Linnea, Vol. IX. p. 293. 

 Linmocliloa acicularis, Eeich. PI. Geitn. Exours. p. 541. 



Rootstock sending out capillary runners, wliich produce small tufts 

 at a little distance from the parent tuft. Stems capillary, very bluntly 

 4-sidcd, sulcate, leafless ; basal sheaths leafless. Spike very small, 

 ovate-fusiform or fusiform-cylindrical, subcompressed, 4- to 11 -flowered. 

 Glumes ovate, obtuse or subacute, brownish-red or dark brown, with 

 a green keel and pale scarious margins, the lowest one completely 

 embracing the base of the spike and as long or longer than the second 

 glume. Hypogynous bristles 1 to 3, caducous or absent ( ?). Stig- 

 mas 3. Nut pale, very minute, oblong-ovoid, bluntly ti-igonous, not 

 compressed, with numerous ribs, and very fine transverse striie, 

 crowned with the subglobose acuminate dai'k base of the style. 



By the margins of lakes and pools, especially in sandy places. Not 

 veiy common, but generally distributed in England. Scarce in Scot- 

 land, whence I have specimens from Loch Maben, Dumfries; Loch 

 Gelly and Camilla Loch, Fife; and Loch Leven, Kinross. Rare in 

 Ireland, and only known to occur in the west of the island, chiefly 

 about Lough Neagh, Lough Erne, and the Shannon, and tributaries or 

 canals connected with them (Cyb. Hib.). 



England, Scotland, Ireland. Perennial. Autumn. 



Rootstock extensively creeping by extremely slender runners, 

 which jiroduce tufts of stems at intervals round the parent plant. 

 Stems numerous in each tuft, very slender, erect, 1 to 6 inches high 

 when growing out of the water, but sometimes a foot or more 



As tlie name is from J'Afie (Iielon), a marsli, it ouglit to be written -with an initial H. 



