b ENGLISH BOTANY. 



branches ■which bear the female heads, and aIi?o on the termination of 

 the main stem itself above the highest branch, falling; off after llowering 

 and leaving the branch bare above the heads of fruit which arc nearly 

 1 inch in diameter. Fruit -j inch long, dark olive, the height from the 

 broadest part to the apex not much greater than the extreme width 

 of the fruit ; the beak or permanent part of the style about one-fourth 

 of the length of the fruit. 



Branched Bur-reed. 



French, Euhanier rameitx. German, Astige I'jelsJ.vlle. 



SPECIES II.-SPARGANIUM SIMPLEX. Emh. 



Plate MCCCLXXXVIII. 



Belcli. Ic. Fl. Germ, et Helv. Vol. IX. Tab. CCCXXV. Fig. 750. 

 Billot, Fl. Gall, et Germ. Exsicc. No. 852. 

 S. erectum, var. j3, Linn. Spec. PI. p. 1378. 



Kadical leaves linear, usually stiff, rarely floating, in the former 

 case rather shai'ply keeled, and triangular at the base, with the lateral 

 faces flat; the stem-leaves with their sheaths not inflated. Flowering 

 stem erect, stiff, simple. Flower-heads in a raceme. Female flower- 

 heads 2 to 4, stalked, terminating the peduncles of the raceme, the 

 uppermost one generally sessile upon the rachis itself. Male flower- 

 heads 2 to 5, sessile on the upper part of the rachis of the raceme. 

 Stigma linear-subulate. Fruit shortly stipitate, oblong-fusiform, with 

 a conical top, gradually acuminated into a long beak. Leaves green, 

 not pellucid, at least at the apex. 



In ditches and shallow water, by the sides of ponds and pools, or in 

 deep water, and then often barren, and with floating leaves. Rather 

 common, and generally distributed, except in the north of Scotland. 



England, Scotland, Ireland. Perennial. Summer. 



S. simplex has much the habit of S. ramosum, but is a smaller 

 jjlant, rarely above 18 inches or 2 feet high, with the leaves about 

 -}, inch broad, of a yellowish green, and with the lateral faces at 

 the base on each side of the keel flat, not concave. j\lale heads 

 yellow before expansion. Female heads usually on a peduncle above 

 the axil of the bract; the lowest peduncles in fruit 1 to 3 inches 

 long; fruit-heads about -|- inch across. Fruit about i inch long, but 

 much more slender than in S. ramosum, and equally attenuated at 

 each end, the beak about ^ of the length of the fruit. The stalk not 

 half the length of the part which contains the seed. 



When growing in deep ditches, canals, or slow-running rivers, 

 S. simplex has the leaves floating, and not distinctly triangular at the 



