ScirpUS.] CYPERACE.E. 543 



the two basal glumes scarcely larger than the vest, the exterior one very broad, 

 sheathing and bractiform, thick and pvoraiiieiu behind by the prolongation of the 

 culm into itself, deeply emarginate at the summit of its round flat border, and 

 hence presenting an obcordale figure ; interior basal glume longer than the outer 

 and partially embraced by the latter, ovate, with a ihick greenish keel, quite entire 

 like the rest. 



V. SciRPUs, Linn. Club-rush. 



" Glumes of one valve, imbricated on all sides, equal, one or two 

 of the outer ones sometimes sterile. Bristles sometimes wanting. 

 Style inarticulated, deciduous, leaving a small mucro." — Br. Fl. 



1. S. paucijiorus, Liglitf. Chocolate-headed Club-rush. Stem 

 rounded, its sheaths leafless, spike ovate few-flowered, two outer 

 glumes the largest obtuse shorter than the entire spike, stigmas 

 3, style scarcely deciduous not jointed. Sm. E. Fl. i. p. 56. Br. 

 Fl. p. 483. E. B. xvi. t. 1123. Fl. Dan. xi. t. 1862. Host. Gram. 

 Aust. iii. t. 58. 



On wet boggy heaths ; very rare. i^/. June, July. If. 



E. Med. — [Boggy slope at the end of St. Helens green, A. G. More, Esq., 

 Edrs.] 



W. Med. — Plentiful on the upper part of the heath at Colwell towards Weston, 

 1 840. Near Yarmouth, James Hussey, Esq., in litt. ! 



Root of many slender brownish fibres, with white jointed runners. Culms seve- 

 ral, slender, erect, 8 — 12 inches high, partly barren, rounded or a little angular 

 near the base ; filled with coarsely cellular pith, quite smooth, clothed with brown- 

 ish or whitish, shining land leafless sheaths, having white, membranous, pointed 

 scales at the origin. Spikes solitary, terminal, erect, about Jrd of an inch long, 

 chestnut- or chocolate-coloured, ovato-lanceolate, few-flowered, their two outer- 

 most glumes larger, but much shorter than the more interior ones, mostly unequal 

 in length and obtuse. Style long, white, compressed, roughish above, quite con- 

 tinuous with the germen, as may be readily seen in the flowering state, when the 

 transparency of the parts betrays no interruption of continuity whatever; stig- 

 mas 3. Bristles 6 (sometimes apparently only 4 or 5), rough with defiexed teeth, 

 shorter than or not exceeding the fruit, 3 of them at the very short base of the 

 germen, but exterior to the stamens, the rest a little above the first, and between 

 the filaments and germen. Fruit ovate, bluntly triquetrouJ, beautifully striated, 

 when ripe of a black brown, pale where it tapers off to the apex, at which it is 

 again dark-coloured. 



2. S. fluitans, L. Floating Club-rush. " Stem (or rather float- 

 ing root) compressed branched, spikes ovate, glumes nearly equal 

 obtuse, stigmas 2, bristles none, fruit obovate plano-convex tip- 

 ped with the narrow base of the style." — Br. Fl. E. B. t. 216. 

 Isolepis, Br. Fl. p. 480. Eleogiton, Link., Lindl. 



In ditches, pools and watery pits, and on their half-dried-up margins ; not 

 uncommon. Fl. June, July. 2^. 



E. Med. — Marsh-ditches at the upper or N.W. end of Lake common, in great 

 plenty. In watery gravel-pits on Borthwood forest. All along the little ditch or 

 drain bounding the fir-plantation by Winford farm, rooting in soft mud. 



W. Med. — Clay-pits on heathy ground near the western arm of the Newtown 

 river. 



Plant either floating in the water, or constituting a^ dense and spongy but 

 treacherous turf round the margins of pools, &c. 



