Cyperus. | LXXXVIII, CYPERACER. 477 
The regular arrangement of the glumes gives the spikelets a flattened 
appearance readily recognized. 
Stem above a foot high. Spikelets numerous. Involucral leaves 
very long : ; . 1, C, longus. 
Stem less than a foot high. Spikelets i ina small cluster. mies! 
leaves not above 3iuches . . ot Sei OA fiers, 
1, C. longus, Linn. (fig. 1081). idee Oipdiad pany — Root- 
stock creeping. Stems stout, 1 to 3 or even 4 feet high, with a few 
leaves at the base, usually shorter than the stem. Involucre of about 3 
leaves, very unequal in length, the Jongest often attaining a foot or more. 
Umbel simple or compound, the central ray very short, the others varying 
from 1 to 2 or even 8 inches, each bearing a simple or branched cluster of 
6 to 12 or more spikelets: these are linear, pointed, flattened, about half an 
inch long. Glumes numerous, obtuse, of a bright chestnut colour, with a 
green keel. Styles 3-cleft. 
In wet meadows, and pastures, common in southern Europe and central 
Asia, extending more sparingly into central France, and along the western 
provinces to the Channel. In Britain very local and only in South 
Wales and some of the southern counties of England. £7. summer, rather 
late. 
2. ©. fuscus, Linn. (fig. 1082). Brown Cyperus.—A much smaller 
plant than the last, forming grass-like tufts a few inches in height, or very 
rarely nearly a foot. Leaves shorter thau the stem, those of the involucre 
unequal, the longest from 2 to 4 inches. Clusters compact, either in a 
small terminal head or in an umbel, of which the longest rays are under 
aninch. Spikelets much flattened, obtuse, not above 3 lines long, with 
dark-brown glumes, not near so closely imbricated as in C. longus. 
In meadows and waste places, widely distributed over central and 
southern Europe and northern Asia, extending northward to southern 
Seandinavia. In Britain, formerly found at Chelsea, now confined to. 
Shalford Common in Surrey, and Jersey. FJ. late in summer. 
Il. SCHGENUS. SCHCGNUS. 
Herbs, usually stiff and rush-like. Glumes arranged, as in Cyperus, in 
two opposite rows, but not more than 4 of the uppermost have flowers in 
their axils, the 3 or 4 lower ones rather shorter and always empty. There 
are also occasionally from 3 to 6 minute bristles round the ovary. 
A small genus, of which most of the species are from the southern hemi- 
- sphere. 
1, S.nigricans, Linn. (fig. 1083). Black Schenus, Bog-rush.—A 
tufted perennial, with stiff, rush-like stems, about a foot high. Leaves 
short and stiff, almost radical, their sheaths often of a dark, shining brown. 
Spikelets several, of a dark, shining brown, almost black, closely sessile in 
compact terminal heads about half an inch in diameter, with an involucre 
of 2 or 3 broad, brown bracts, one of which at least has a stiff, erect, leaf- 
like point 4 to 1 inch long. Glumes nearly 8 lines long, pointed, with a 
prominent keel, and rough on the edge. 
In bogs and marshes, chiefly near the sea, in central and southern 
Europe, extending northward to the Baltic and to north Asia. Spread 
over a great part of Britain, but chiefly in the west. Fl. swmmer. 
