Sparganiiim.'] typhace,e. 531 



II. Sp^veganiom, Linn. Bur-reed. 



" Spadix spherical. Perianth of 3 scales which are broader 

 upwards (sterile stamens ?).^ — Barren flowers : — Stamens 3, dis- 

 tinct or nearly so : anthers ovate. — Fertile flowers : — Pericarp ses- 

 sile."— Br. Fl. 



1. S. ramosum, Huds. Branched Bur-reed. " Leaves triangu- 

 lar at the base their sides concave, common flower-stalk branched, 

 stigma linear."— Br. Fl. p. 461. E. B. t. 744. S. erectum, L. 



In ponds, ditches and slow streams, most abundantly. Fl. June — Septem- 

 ber, li.. 



E. Med. — Sandown level. In a pond at St. Helens spit, which is quite filled 

 with it. Ditches near Sea View. 



W. Med. — Plentiful in the marsh at FreshwateV gate. Pond near Freshwater 

 farm, in great plenty and very large. Gurnet bay. 

 The largest of our British species. 



2. S. simplex, Huds. Unhranched Bur-reed. Leaves triangu- 

 lar at the base their sides flat, common flower-stalk simple, stigma 

 linear. Br. Fl. p. 461. E. B. t. 745. S. erectum /3., L. 



In ditches, pools, &c., with the last, but less frequently. Fl. July — October. 



F. Med. — In several ditches on Sandown marshes. Ditches between Brading 

 and St. Helens, frequent. Abundant in Lasbniere pond, at the foot of Bleak 

 down. Marsh-meadow ditches on the East end of Alverstone lynch, 1849. 



W. Med. — In a pool by the cottage on the skirls of the fir-plantiilion above 

 Burn wood, in abundance, 1844. 



Hoot a bundle of long, lax, pale fibres and a few white runners. Stem 1 — 2 

 feet high, flexuose, round, solid, leafy and simple, unless the branch-like pedun- 

 cles, each supporting a solitary terminal flower-head, wiibout any lateral ones as 

 on the main stalk, be viewed as ramiticalions. Leaves long, as tall as or rather 

 taller than the stem, very vascular, erect, linear, prismatic, yellowish green, con- 

 cave and sheathing at their membranous and filamentous bases, nearly flat above, 

 with thin smooth edges and a not very acute point, sharply triangular beneath, 

 the sides flat or in the lower part of the leaf slightly convex, not, as in S. ramo- 

 sum, concave. Heads of barren flowers 3 or 4, approximate at the summit of the 

 stem, small, round, sessile, yellow even before expansion, not blackish as in S. 

 ramosum. Anthers yellow. Fertile flowers in 3 or 4 dense globular heads below 

 the barren ones, alternate and distant, the 2 or 3 highest sessile from the close 

 incorporation of their peduncles with the common stalk, the lowermost and often 

 the one above it on a partially free and erect peduncle, arising, like those of the 

 other fertile head.s, from the axil of a long, leafy, concave bract, of wliich that 

 beneath the uppermost head is far smaller than the rest and suddenly bent down. 



Dr. Bell-Salter has remarked to me that the lowermost and stalked head of 

 flowers in S. simplex commonly arises from the main stem, considerably above 

 and not from the axil of the undermost leaf as in 8. ramosum, and this accords 

 with the figures in E. B. and Fl. Londinensis, as also with dried specimens from 

 Shropshire, but in some gathered in this island the inferior head of flowers is axil- 

 lary as in the branched Bur-reed. 



This species very much resembles the preceding, of which it has by some been 

 deemed a variety, but its characters are constant enough to make such a supposi- 

 tion more than doubtful. Though very variable in size, it never attains to any- 

 thing like the dimensions of S. ramosum, and the colour is of a lighter and paler 

 green than in that species. 



