492 



CVI. CYPERACEiE. 



lEIeocharis. 



On the coast of Wales, west of Eno-. 

 1/.. 7. — Slenderer and more rigid than 



Scotland, as far as Shetland, 

 land, and west of Ireland. 



the last, more upright: spikes darVer ; the ^Zwrnes more membranaceous' 

 thin, not striate, and obtuser, in both very broad and convolute. 



6. Eleocharis Br. Spike-rusli. 

 Spihelets solitary, terminal, many-flowered. Glumes imbri- 



cated on all sides, uniform, scarcely any empty, lowermost the 



largest. 



none. 



E. uniij!;lumis Sab. 



Ilypogymms bristles (4 — 12) toothed, included, rarely 

 Style 2 — 3-fid, its dilated base jointed upon the gcrmen. 

 Achene mostly lenticular, crowned with the broad indurated 

 corky base of the style. — Marsh plants. Stems simjole, leafless^ 

 sheathed at tJie base. — Name: t\oc^ tXeoc^ a ?/2a?\s//, and ;^aipw 

 to delight ; from the place of growth. 



1. E. palitstris Br. {creeping S,) ; stem rounded, root 

 creeping, stigmas 2, fruit lenticular plano-convex crowned with 

 the compressed base of the style shorter than the 4 — 6 bristles. 

 Scirpus L. : E. B.t. 131. 



Sides of ditches and wet marshy places, frequent. 2/.. 6, 7. — ^' Root 

 creeping (usually to a great length), black and shining, as well as the 

 external sheaths of the stem. Bristles, in the flower only 4, lono-er 

 than the ripe fruit, flattened, dilated at the base, and broader than the 

 filaments. Receptacle elongated below the insertion of the filaments, 

 so that the flower appears to be not quite sessile as it is in E, multi- 

 caulis. Germen shorter and broader than in the next species, the 

 style is also shorter. Again : the section of the stem is different from 

 that of E, midtic, without any central pith, but with larger mem- 

 branous tubes, surrounded by smaller ones:" Wilson, MSS, Some 

 botanical writers make two species of this : one with the outer glume 

 only half surrounding the spike at its base, the other, hence called 

 E. uniglumis by Link, almost wholly surrounding it. For the last 

 the following stations are given : Aberdeen, Barvas, Isle of Lewis, 

 and Parkstone, near Poole Harbour. Mr. Babington has, in the 

 Ann. Nat. Hist., July, 1852, p. 20., described a si)ecies under the 

 name of E. Watsoni, which appears to us to be the Scirpus intermedins 

 Thuill., now generally referred to E. palustrisj it is small, and the 

 root scarcely creeping ; it is only known from two or three stems 

 leaving been found in Dr. Balfour's herbarium among So. paucijlorus, 

 which he had collected at Taynlone in Cantyre. 



2. E. multicaulis Sm. (many-stalked S.) ; stem rounded, root 

 scarcely creeping, stigmas 3, fruit obovate, triquetrous crowned 

 with the triquetrous base of the style longer than the 6 bristles. 

 Scirpus E. B. t. 1187. Scirpus palustris /3. Linn. Lapp. ed. 2. 



Not uncommon, probably, in marshy places throughout the king- 

 dom, but frequently passed by for E. palustris. %. 7- — Exceed- 

 ingly closely allied to the last, of which Kunth seems disposed to 

 consider it a variety. Like E. palvst. it has the outer glume either 

 half surrounding or almost wholly surrounding the spikelet ; the 



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