486 THE SEDGE FAMILY. 
Stems sharply triangular, 2 to 4 or even 5 feet high, with long, flat, 
- pointed leaves, often far exceeding the stem. Spikelets of a rich brown, 
ovoid or lanceolate, about 9 lines long, sometimes only 2 or 3 in a close 
sessile cluster, more frequently 8 to 10 in a compound cluster, the outer 
ones stalked. ‘The leaf-like outer bract continues the stem, and some- 
times one or two other bracts have leafy points. Glumes notched, with 
a fine point. Style 3-cleft. Hypogynous bristles few. 
In salt marshes, and occasionally up the banks of large rivers in 
most north temperate regions, though less frequent within the tropics. 
Common all round the coasts of Britain: Fl. summer. 
15. S. sylvaticus, Linn. (fig. 1106). Wood S.—Stems triangular, 2 
or 3 feet high, with long, grass-like leaves. Spikelets ovoid, of a dark 
shining green, not above 2 lines long, very numerous, in clusters of 2 
or 3 together, forming a terminal, much branched, compound umbel or 
panicle, with an involcure of 2 or 3 linear leaves. Glumes keeled and 
pointed. Hypogynous bristles usually 6. Styles 3-cleft. 
In moist woods, and on grassy banks of rivers, throughout Europe 
and Russian Asia, except the extreme north, and North America. 
Abundant in some localities, over England, Ireland, and central and 
southern Scotland, but not generally common. Fl. summer. 
VII. ERIOPHORUM. COTTONSEDGE. 
Habit and character of Scripus, except that the hypogynous bristles, 
as the flowering advances, protrude to a great length beyond the glumes, 
forming silky-cottony tufts, which have given to these plants the name. 
of Cotton-rushes or Cotton-grass. The style is usually 3-cleft. 
A genus of few species, all bog plants, restricted to the northern 
hemisphere, and most abundant in high latitudes or at considerable 
elevations. 
Spikelets solitary. 
Spikelets 2 or 3 lines long, oblong, and brown. Hypogynems 
bristles 6 to each flower. . 1. #. alpinwn. 
Spikelets above 6 lines long, ovoid, of a dark olive- ereen. 
Hypogynous bristles very numerous ~ 2 E : . 2. EB. vaginatum. 
Spikelets several to each stem i : : . 38. E. polystachion. 
1. E. alpinum, Linn. (fig. 1107). “Sania C.—In everything but the 
long bristles this plant precisely resembles Scirpus ccespitosus. It has 
the same densely tufted stems, 6 to 10 inches high, with imbricate 
sheaths at the base; the inner ones with very short leafy tips, and 
small, brown, solitary and terminal spikelets. After flowering the 
hypogynous bristles, about 6 to each flower, form a silky tuft attaining 
an inch in length. 
In bogs, in the high mountain-ranges of Europe and Russian Asia, 
or at high latitudes all round the Arctic circle. Formerly found in a 
bog near Forfar, now extinct. Fl. summer. 
2. E. vaginatum, Linn. (fig. 1108). Sheathing C.—Stems tufted, 
a foot high or more, covered at the base with a few loose rageed 
sheaths, one or two of Cien bear linear, almost subulate leaves, shorter 
than the stem, and one or two of the upper sheaths inflated, ‘without 
any or only a very short blade. Spikelet solitary, terminal, ovoid, 6 to 
8 lines long, of a deep olive-green. Hypogynous bristles very numerous — 
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