Trigloch'm.] triglochinace^e. 525 



a very brief point of attachment. Seed linear, semielliptical (its interior margin 

 straight), ao-ute. 



Professor Bigelow ascribes to the leaves of this plant a sweetish not unpleasant 

 taste, which they certainly do not possess in Europe, where both the taste and 

 odour are about equally unsavoury and repulsive. 



3. T. pahistre, L. Marsh Arrow-grass. " Fruit 3-celled nearly- 

 linear. "~Br. Fl. p. 459. E. B. t. 366. 



In wet or boggy meadows or pastures ; not verv frequent. Fl. June, July. 

 Fr. October. %. 



E. Med. Plentiful along the banks of slipped land along the shore between 

 Whitecliff bay and Bembridge, Mr. Thos..Meehan,jun. Sandown level, above 

 Alverstone. In a meadow a little E. of Langbridge, where Utricularia minor 

 grows, in plenty, 1843. In the meadow below Lower Knighton mill, also plenti- 

 ful. Moors between Bridge Court and Bow bridge, 1843. [Brading marshes, 

 A. G. More, Esq., Edrs.] 



W. Med. — Most profusely in a very boggy meadow a little above Newbridge, 

 towards Calbouvne mill, 1843. In the meadow at Apes down in which Cyperus 

 longus grows, plentifully. Wet piece of beathy ground close to Sheepwash farm. 

 Freshwater, and by one of the marsh-ditches at Freshwater gate. On wet clay 

 between Thorness bay and the raoulh of the Newtown river. Yarmouth. Near 

 Newport, G. Kirkpatrick, Esq. ! 



Herb bright green, perfectly glabrous, with a foetid smell, when bruised, like 

 that of bugs. Root a bundle of whitish scarcely branched fibres, crowned with the 

 membranous remains of the previous year's leaves, and emitting besides one or two 

 horizontal, jointed and scaly runners, which, according to Mr. W. Wilson and 

 Bertoloni, produce bulbs at their extremity. Stem solitary, erect, slender, terete, 

 hollow in the centre, bright green, from about 6 or 8 inches to neaily 2 feet in 

 height, whitish below, slightly flexuose and attenuated at its base, which is closely 

 embraced by the sheathing base of a single accompanying leaf. Leaves several, 

 all radical, shorter than the stem, erect or lax and reclining (?), very long, slen- 

 der, attenuated and rush-like but not rigid, terete, a little flattened and with a 

 shallow groove above, the apex with a minute, rounded, brown and shining tip ; 

 equitant below by their long, greenish and sheathing bases, whose fine scariose 

 margins terminate abruptly at top in a free, rounded, bifid point. Flowers in a 

 simple, terminal, constantly elongating raceme, numerous, alternate, erect, small 

 and inconspicuous, greenish or purplish. Pedicels about as long usually as the 

 full-blown flowers, erecto-patent. Segments of the perianth greenish, with pur- 

 plish edges, in two distinct whorls, the three outer and lower broadly elliptical, 

 hollow and gibbous, slightly spreading or patent ; inner and upper similar, but 

 somewhat smaller, erect ; all six obtusely keeled at the back with short, blunt, 

 purplish points, those of the inner segments often a little spreading. Stamens 

 very short, without ^/amem^s; anthers large, purplish green, broadly elliptical, 

 lodged in the concavity of the perianth-segments, the three inner ones quite con- 

 cealed by the latter, 2-celled, bursting on their outer convex face, their concave 

 backs turned towards the germens, at the base of which they are inserted by a 

 short point or process, hence truly hypogynous ; pollen whitish. Styles obsolete ; 

 stigmas 3, a tuft of radiating, pellucid, simple bristles. Germens 3, sublinear- 

 oblong, closely combined to their summits, which protrude above the perianth, 

 elongating as they advance to maturity. Fruit erect, almost linear, yellowish 

 brown, of 3 linear-lanceolate indehiscent capsules, fitted to the angles of a broadly 

 3-winged receptacle, to which they are permanently attached at the summit, but 

 separating from it when ripe at their lower very acute extremities, in which state 

 they resemble those pikes or arrow-heads we see in old armouries, with three barbs 

 that spread in the attempt to extract the weapon from the wound. Seed solitary, 

 brownish, linear, attached to the bottom of the cell by a short funiculus. 



Beadily distinguished from T. maritimum by the suppression of three of the 

 cells of the capsule, the rudiments of which appear like a tapering hollow rib in 

 the angles of the three remaining cells. 



