484 THE SEDGE FAMILY. [ Scirpus. 
broad, brown, fringed at the edge, notched at the top, ‘with a little point 
inthenotch. Hypogynous bristles 5 or 6. Style 2- or 3-cleft. Nut smooth. 
On the margins of lakes and ponds, and in watery ditches, in Arctic, 
temperate and tropical regions over the globe. Abundant in Britain. FJ. 
summer. 'Two varieties are often distinguished as species, S. lacustris, 
with a 3-cleft style and smooth glumes, and S. Tabernemontani, Gmel. 
(S. glaucus, Sm.), with a 2-cleft style and raised dots on the glumes; but 
these characters are very inconstant, and there are often 2-cleft and 3-cleft 
styles in the same spikelet. The name of S. Duvali, or S. carinatus, Sm., 
is sometimes given to a variety of S. lacustris with the stems rather more 
triangular at the top, sometimes to a slight variety of S. triqueter. [There 
are three principal British forms of this species, S. lacustris proper, 
with terete green stems, leaves often floating, ciliate anther -tips and com- 
pressed nuts; S. Tabernemontani, Gmel., with glaucous terete stems, 
scalrid glumes, glabrous anther-tips, and 3-gonous nuts; S. carinatus, 
Sm., with green stems obtusely three-angled above, glabrous anther- 
tips, and compressed nuts. This last occurs on tidal river banks in the 
south of England only. | 
14, S. maritimus, Linn. (fig. 1102). Sea Scirpus.—Rootstock creep- 
ing. 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 ina 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 sometimes 
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. 1103). Wood Scirpus.—Stems tri- 
angular, 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 involucre 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 Scot- 
land, but not generally common. SY. summer. 
VII. ERIOPHORUM. COTTONSEDGE. 
Habit and character of Scirpus, 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 hemi- 
sphere, and most abundant in high latitudes or at considerable elevations. » 
Spikelets solitary. 
Spikelets 2 or 3 lines long, oblong, and brown. Hypogynaus 
bristles 6 to each flower. ® e ° ‘ ‘ 1. £. alpinum. 
