546 cypERACE.E. [Scirjms. 



coloured scabrosity. Bracts (glumes) closely imbricated, roundish ovate, of an 

 uniform dark rusly red or brown, proceeding IVom innumerable little warty promi- 

 nences scattered over their outer surface, hence scabrous, their margins scariose, 

 fringed, shortly and abruptly mucronato-acuminate, scarcely keeled. Filaments 

 ■white, at first included and very short, dilated into an obovate shape, finely stri- 

 ate, finally elongate and protruding ; anthers yellowish, linear, quite devoid of any 

 beard, a little scabrous merely at their summits, and not always that. Hypogy- 

 nous bristles 6, short, relrorsely spinulose. Germen ovoid, tapered into the style, 

 without any evident articulation whatever. Style white, much exserted, cleft 

 into 2 long', simple, spreading or recurved, roughish stigmas, that are protruded 

 before the stamens. Fruit palish brown, rotundato-obovate, mucronato-apiculate, 

 plano-convex, a little shining, finely and most minutely puuctulato-striate, about 

 equal to or a little shorter than the 4—6 permanent, retrorsely scabrons, hypogy- 

 nons setae. 



My specimens from the Dover, though very tall, agree with Smith's description 

 of his S. glaucns in colour, and in having but two stigmas. The styles appear to fall 

 away before tlie stamens protrude from the glumes, within which it is possible 

 impregnation may take place, or perhaps that process is effected upon the denuded 

 summit of the ovarium after the separation of the styles, whose usual office of 

 retaining the pollen would in that case seem to be superfluous: this peculiarity 

 in flowering makes the plant appear at first sight dioecious. 



This is certainly a very distinct species from the Common or Greater Bulrush 

 (S. lacustris), if the above characters are, as they appear to be, constant. Leigh, 

 ton describes the filaments of >S'. lacustris as extended beyond the anther, and ter- 

 minating in a downy tuft, neither of which is the case in the present species, where 

 the filaments are at first extremely short, obovate, beautifully striate, and attached 

 to the lower extremity of the anther by a minute point merely. He also gives the 

 three stigmas of S. lacustris as pubescent: in our present plant they are roughish 

 only with a few spinulose points. 



I have not yet (L843) seen the true S. lacustris in this island.* 



6. S. maritimus, L. Salt-marsh Club-rush. " Stem leafy tri- 

 angular, spikelets terminal clustered stalked and sessile, involu- 

 cre of many foliaceous leaflets, glumes with a mucro between the 

 acute segments of the notch." — Br. Fl. p. 482. E. B. t. 542. 

 Host. Gram. Aust. iii. 45, t. 67. 



Plentiful in salt-marsh ditches and pools, and along the muddy shores of tide- 

 rivers and creeks. Fl. June — August. 2^. 



FJ. Med. — Ditches by the Dover, Kyde. In Brading and Sandown marshes, 

 abundantly. 



W. Med. — Abundant in Newtown salt-marshes, Sec. 



A well-marked species, from its compact roundish heads of large dark brown 

 spikelets, subtended by two or three long and very unequal leaves, sheathing at 

 the base. Glumes torn at their upper edges, with a long mucronale process 

 beween their bifid points, proceeding from a green central rib. 



7. S. sylvaticus, L. Wood Club-rush. Millet. Stem triangu- 

 lar leafy, panicle terminal cymose repeatedly compound, the 

 branches divaricate, involucre leafy, spikelets aggregate, glumes 

 entire. Sm. E. Fl. i. p. 63. Br. Fl. p. 483. E. B. xUi. t. 119. 



Host. Gram. Aust. iii. 46, t. 68 (opt.) 



Tn moist woods, on wet slipped land, and sides of ditches ; not rare. Fl. June, 

 July. i^r. July, August. If. 



* [This remark was repeated by the author in 1850, in his Notes on the 'Plants 

 of Hampshire.' Vide Phytol. iii. p. 1027.— ^rfrs.] 



