Rhynchospora. | LXXXVIII, CYPERACHE. 479 
inches high, slender, forming dense, grass-like tufts, without any creeping 
rootstock. Leaves chiefly radical, short and subulate; the floral bracts 
scarcely exceeding the flowers. Spikelets nearly white, in a small, loose 
terminal cluster, often with one or two smaller clusters on slender pedun- 
cles in the axils of the next leaves. Hach spikelet 2 to 23 lines long, with 
- Lor 2 flowers, and 2, 3, or 4 empty glumes before them. Hypogynous 
bristles ‘about 12, more apparent than in &. fusca, being usually rather 
longer than the nut, although shorter than the glume. 
In bogs, in northern and central Europe, northern Asia, and North 
America, Generally distributed over Britain. £1. summer and autumn. 
V. BLYSMUS. BLYSMUS. 
Spikelets and flowers of Scirpus, but the spikelets are sessile, in two 
opposite rows, along the axis of a short terminal spike. 
— A genus limited to the two European species. 
Spikelets chestnut-brown, 6- to 8-flowered, and Pree than the 
glume-like bract ai their base . . 1. B. compressus. 
Spikelets dark-brown, 2- to 4-flowered, almost enclosed i in the long 
glume-like bract at their base . : . 2. B. rufus, 
1, B. compressus, Panz. (fig. 1087). Broad ein —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 hypogyuous bristles. Nuts somewhat flattened, tapering into the 
2-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. £7. 
summer. 
2, B. rufus, Link. (fig. 1088). Narrow Blysmus.—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 hypogy- 
nous bristles minute or wanting. Nutrather 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. #7. summer, 
VI. SCIRPUS. SCIRPUS. 
Spikelets either solitary and terminal or several together, forming one 
