636 FLOWERS OF GARDEN AND GREENHOUSE 
grass-like, or reduced to mere sheaths closely investing the stem. The 
species are of world-wide distribution ; fourteen British. 
Scirpus HoLoscuaNnus (whole-cord). Stems stout, 
erect, tapering, 2 to 3 feet high. Leaves few, erect, half- 
round, channeled, with rough margins. Spikelets minute, crowded 
into compact globular cymes. There is a variety variegatus, with 
whitish zones around the stem; this is the form chiefly cultivated. 
S. LACUSTRIS (inhabiting lakes or pools). Bulrush. Stems 1 to 8 
feet high, an inch thick, spongy, nearly round. Leaves usually absent; 
but when present, short, flat, and keeled if growing in still water, long 
and strap-shaped in streams. Spikelets red-brown, in a spreading terminal 
cyme. Native perennial. 
S. RIPARIUS (riverside). Stems numerous, rounded, 8 inches long, 
drooping ; leafless, except sometimes an imperfect short leaf at the base. 
The flowers are terminal, massed in one or two oval spikelets. Plate 299. 
It is known in trade lists as Jsolepis gracilis. Australia, 1820. 
S. SETACEUS (bristly). Stems thread-like, rounded, rigid, in tufts, 3 
to 6 inches high. Leaves short and narrow, bristly, channeled. Spikelets 
one to three, oval, one-sided. Whole plant similar to S. riparius. Native 
perennial, Also known as [solepis setacea. 
abcess These plants grow naturally in a boggy soil, and the 
' best substitute for it in cultivation is a mixture of loam 
and leaf-mould; or they will do well in peat. They require plenty of 
water ; and when grown in hanging baskets or vases, as is frequently the 
case with S. riparius, it is advisable to stand the flower-pot in a saucer 
in which water may be poured; but this must not be allowed to become 
stale. Where there is a tank, or a fountain-basin, the pots may be stood 
in the water. S. lacustris is, from its size, more suitable for planting at 
the edge of water out of doors. 
Description of Scirpus riparius, natural size. Fig. 1, flower-stem with 
Plate 299. two spikelets; 2, a single glume detached, with stamens and 
pistil; 3, flower-stem, ending in single spikelet. 
PrincipalSpecies. 
FEATHER GRASSES 
Natural Order GRAMINE&. Genus Stipa 
Stipa (Greek, stype, flax or tow: in allusion to the inflorescence). A 
genus of about a hundred species of perennial grasses, mostly tall, with 
the usual grass-like leaves, which, however, are rarely flat, but mostly 
