CYrERACE^E. 51 



liiirli when submerged ; but in tliat case they are always (?) barren. 

 Basal sheaths liyaliue, acute, covering the reddish base of the stem. 

 Si)ikes i to l inch long, the smaller ones fusiform, the larger oblong- 

 cylindrical and somewhat compressed. Glumes varying from chocolate 

 to hrownish-red, with a broad green stripe on the back. Nut ex- 

 tremely minute, whitish, with 8 or 10 raised ribs. 



Slender Club-rush. 



French, Scirpe cpingle. German, Nadelformiges Ried. 



SPECIES II.-SCIRPUS PALUSTRIS. Linn. 



Plates MDLXXXVI. MDLXXXVII. 



(H)Eleocharis palustris, B. Br. Kunth, Enum. PI. Vol. II. p. 147 Hook. & Ani. 

 Brit. Fl. ed. viii. p. 491. 



Rootstock stout, extensively creeping, producing tufts of stems or 

 solitary stems at intervals all along its branches. Stems erect, rather 

 stout, subcompressed-terete, faintly striate, leafless; basal sheaths 

 leafless, truncate. Spike rather small, fusiform or lanceolate-cylin- 

 drical or fusiform-cylindrical, many-flowered. Glumes lanceolate, 

 chocolate or reddish-brown, with or without a greenish keel, with 

 broad or narrow scarious margins; lowest glume partially or wholly 

 embracing the base of the spike, shorter and blunter than the others ; 

 upper ones subacute. Hypogynous bristles 4 to 6. Stigmas 2. Nut 

 rather large, obovate-lenticular, biconvex, nearly smooth, with faint 

 longitudinal striae, crowned with the compressed deltoid-triangular 

 acuminate pale base of the style. 



SnB-SpEciEs I— Scirpus eu-palustris. 



Plate MDLXXXVI. 



Reich. Ic. Fl. Germ, et Helv. Vol. VIII. Tab. CCXCVH. 



Billof, Fl. Gall, et Germ. Exsico. No. 2559. 



S. palustris, Sm. Engl. Bot. No. 131. 



(H)Eleochari8 palustris, Koch. Bah. Man. Brit. Bot. cd. vi. p. 371, et Auct. Plur. 



Glumes dull broAvn, with green midribs and broad whitish scarious 

 margins; the lowest glume roundish and oidy half surroundin"- the 

 base of the spike. Nut smooth under an ordinary lens. 



By the sides of ponds and lakes and in marshes. Very common and 

 generally distributed. 



England, Scotland, Ireland. Perennial. Summer, Autumn. 



Rootstock about the thickness of a crowquill or a little thicker, very 

 extensively creeping, producing tufts of intermingled fertile and barren 



U. OF ILL LIB. 



