Blysmus. | LXXXVIII. CYPERACH, | 481 
Spikelets chestnut-brown, 6- to 8-flowered, and longer than the 
glume-like bract at their base . . 1. B. compressus. 
Spikelets dark-brown, 2- to 4-flowered, almost enclosed in the long 
glume-like bract at their base . d ; » 2. B. rufus. 
1. B. compressus, Panz. (fig. 1090). ens 4.—Stems 6 to 8 inches 
high, with a creeping rootstock. Leaves much like those of the common 
Carex panicea, shorter than the stem, 1 to 14 lines broad, flat or keeled. 
Spike terminal, about an inch long, consisting of about 10 or 12 oblong 
spikelets, closely sessile on opposite sides of the axis, each one about 3 
lines long; the broad, brown, glume-like outer bract shorter than the 
mature spikelet. Glumes about 8, imbricated all round the axis of the 
spikelet, the lowest one of all often empty. Stamens usually 3, with 
3 to 6 small hypogynous bristles. Nuts somewhat flattened, tapering 
into the two-cleft style. Scirpus Caricis, Retz. 
In bogs and marshes, in Europe and Russian Asia, not extending to 
the extreme north, and yet a mountain plant in southern Europe and 
the Caucasus. Occurs in many parts of England, and southern Scotland. 
Fl. summer. 
2. B. rufus, Link. (fig. 1091). Narrow B.—Stems 6 inches to near 
a foot high, rather stiff but slender, with a few very narrow leaves near 
_ the base, shorter than the stem, erect and channelled or nearly cylin- 
drical. Spike terminal, 6 to 9 lines long, consisting of about 6 sessile 
spikelets, of a dark, shining brown, almost black, each containing only 
2 to 4 flowers, and almost concealed by the outer bracts, which are dark 
brown, thin, and shining, about 3 lines long. Glumes of the spikelet 
imbricated all round the axis, the lowest one often empty. Stamens 3 ; 
the hypogynous bristles minute or wanting. Nut rather larger than in 
B. compressus. Scirpus rufus, Wahlb. 
In marshy places, especially near the sea, in northern Europe and all 
across temperate Asia, extending from northern Germany nearly to the 
Arctic circle. In Britain, particularly abundant in Scotland and northern 
England, descending to North Wales and Lincolnshire ; not uncommon 
in northern Ireland, Fl. summer. 
VI. SCIRPUS. SCIRPUS. 
Spikelets either solitary and terminal or several together, forming one 
or more heads or clusters, or an irregular panicle, either terminal or 
apparently below the top of the stem. Glumes several in each spikelet, 
imbricated all round the axis, all containing a perfect flower in their 
axil except sometimes the lowest one. Hypogynous bristles either 6, or 
fewer and shorter than the glume, or altogether wanting. 
A large genus, widely distributed over the whole world, and, like other 
large genera of Cyperacece, containing species very unlike each other in 
general habit. It has been repeatedly endeavoured to divide it into 
several, with characters derived from the hypogynous bristles, the shape 
of the base of the style, the number of its parts, &c., but the smaller 
groups so formed still include species as unlike each other as those of 
the original genus, whilst species closely resembling each other in every 
other respect have become widely separated. The genus is therefore 
here retained in its integrity, distinguished from Rhynchospora by the 
glumes all bearing flowers except the lowest, from Cyperus by the 
2H 
