548 CYPER.MJ-E. [Erlophorum. 



half triangular, nut elliptic acuminate or obovate triquetrous." — 

 Bab. Alan. p. 354. a. Fruit obovato-elliptical. E. polystacliion, 

 Lliin. : E. B. t. 5G3. Lc'ujht. Fl. Shrops. p. 31, and fig. in pi. 3. 

 E. angustifolium P., Br. Fl. p. 485. 



p. angustifolium. Fruit elliptical-acuminate. E. angustifolium, Roth. E. B. 

 t. 564. Br. Fl. p. 485. 



In boftp:y or marsliy ground. Fl. April. Fr. June. If. 



E. Med. — Very abundant in boggy ground on Rookley moors, and about tbe 

 Wilderness, 1844. Abundant on tbe'S.E. face of Bleak down, 1842. 



W. Med. — Between Thorley a~nd Wilniingham farm. 



(8. In bogs and wet land along the coast. In Colwell and Totland bays, com- 

 mon. 



Root creeping, with many long whitish fibres. Stem erect, roundish, smooth, 

 filled with coarse cellular tissue, dark green and striated. Leaves very narrow, 

 linear, tapering to a fine point, those of the stem few (about 3), of the root more 

 numerous, as tall as or taller than the flowering stem, with brown sheathing bases, 

 so sharply keeled and channelled as to appear triangular in section, which they 

 are Irnly for some distance below their tips. Spikes usually 4 or 6, ovate, on 

 smooth and muuh-flattened pedicels, two of them drooping when in flower, the 

 rest erect and on shorter footstalks, all springing from a foliaceous sheath or brac- 

 tea. Glumes lanceolate, thin, pellucid, membranous, pointed, single-ribbed, the 

 outermost all floriferous in my specimens. Anthers long, yellow. Sti/les rough 

 on their upper half, as are the long contorted stigmas, which are protruded from the 

 anthers, giving the plant ihe appearance of being dioecious at first sight. Hairs at 

 the base of the germen snow-white, flattened and jointed internally, at length 

 about three times as long as the ripe .seed. Nut brownish black, obovato-elliptical, 

 acutely triquetrous, with mostly compressed angles, the inner face much the 

 broadest; quite smooth, not striated and scarcely shining, tipped with the base 

 of the style. 



The plant found about the Wilderness has Ihe elliptic and pointed seed 

 ascribed to E. angnslifolimn by Mr. Leigbton, but the hairs are not longer than 

 in the true E.polystackyon from Bleak down. The Colwell and Totland-bay 

 plant is probably correctly referred to /3. aiigiistifolium, as will also most likely 

 be the case with that in the low meadows around Newchurch. 



The form of the nut in my specimens of this and (jf E. latifolium perfectly 

 agrees with Mr. Leighton's accurate delineation of both in the ' Flora of Shrop- 

 shire." 



3. E. latifolium, Hoppe. Rough-stalked Cotton-ijrass. " Stem 

 triangular tipwards, leaves nearly fiat below lanceolate contracted 

 into a triangular point above the middle, stalks of the spikelets 

 scabrous (usually elongated), bristles 2 — 3 times longer than the 

 cuneato-obovate achene, glumes 1-nerved." — Bi\ Fl. p. 484. E. 

 pubescens, Sm. E. Fl. i. p. 69. E. B. Suppl. i. t. 3633. Wahl. _ 

 Fl. S'liec. i. p. 39. E. polystachyon (a.), L. ? Flor. Suec. 



In hogs and mar.shy meadows. /^/. April ? and May ? If. 



W. Med. — Plentiful in the upper and boggy part of Colwell heath, 1841. 



Root blackish, creeping, with several stout yellowish fibres, throwing up suckers. 

 Stem erect, slightly ascending at the base, which is quite concealed by the black- 

 ish brown sheathing remains of the spring leaves, 1 — 2^ feel in height, hollow, 

 smooth, bluntly triquetrous throughout, rather more acutely so in the upper part 

 beyond the highest leaf. Leaves chiefly at the base of the stem, those of the radi- 

 cal shoots longer and narrower, cauline ones few, very distant, erect, flat, short, on 

 close sheaths, which are about their own length and brownish at their summits. 

 Braels foliaceous, variable in length, lanceolate, sheathing and concave below, 

 dark brown, many-ribbed, rough all over at the back with granular prominences, 



