» ENGLISH nOTANT. 



S. affine comes very near to S. simplex, and is often with clifTiculty 

 distinguished from the floating state of the latter. The following 

 differences are observable. In S. affine the sheaths of the stem- 

 leaves are more inflated, the stigmas are more thickened and ligulate, 

 shorter and more oblique than in S. simplex, and decidedly thicker 

 than the style, the fruit is more attenuated at each end, having a longer 

 stalk and a longer beak. In fruit the heads are more equally stalked, 

 even the upper having commonly a short peduncle. The male heads 

 are smaller, from the filaments being shorter, and the whole plant is 

 of a deeper green, less inclining to yellow- 



Whether S. affine be really distinct from the S. natans of Fries. I 

 am unable to say. Both Nyman, in the " Sylloge Floro3 Europeaj," 

 and C. J. Hartmann, in the ninth edition of the "Handbuk i Skan- 

 dinaviens Flora," separate them, the latter giving as synonyms of 

 S. natans. Fries, S. Friesii, BevrUng (whose pa])er I have been unable 

 to see), and S. longifolium, Turczaninow. The principal points of 

 difference seem to be the branched flower-stem and more numerous 

 male heads of S. natans, Fries^ but the stem is certainly occasionally 

 branched in S. affine. 



Specimens of S. affine from Shetland in the herbarium of the late 

 Dr. Fleming were labelled by Don " S. longifolium, Do}i," but I am 

 not aware that he ever gave a description of the species. 



Floating Bur -reed. 



French, Bubanier floUant. German, Kleinsto Irjelsholbe. 



SPECIES rV.-SPARGANIUM MINIMUM. Fries. 



Plate MCCCXC. 



Bekh. Ic. PI. Germ, at Helv. Vol. IX. Tab. CCCXXIV. Fig. 749. 



Billot, Fl. Gall, et Germ. Exsicc. No. 853. 



S. natans, Linn. Spec. PI. p. 1378 {ex imrta). Sm. Engl. Bot. ed. i. No. 273. Koch, 



Syn. Fl. Germ, et Helv. ed. ii. p. 786. Crep. Man. FI. Belg. ed. ii. p. 310 (nou 



Linn. Fl. Lapp.). Fries. 



Leaves linear, flaccid, always floating, none of them triangular at 

 the base. Stem-leaves with the sheaths short, not inflated. FloAver- 

 ing-stem floating, slender, flaccid, simple, the apex rising out of the 

 water only at the time of flowering. Flower-heads in a spike-like 

 raceme or spike. Female flower-heads 1 to 3, shortly stalked, termi- 

 nating the peduncles of the raceme, the upper one, or sometimes all 

 of them, sessile on the rachis itself. Male flower-head solitary, sessile 

 on the extremity of the racliis. Stigma oblong-lanceolate. Fruit 

 subsessile, ovate-ovoid, with a shortly conical top, rather suddenly 

 acuminated into a short beak. Leaves olive-green, subpellucid. 



In ditches and small pools, principally in peaty soil. Rather scarce, 



