THE SEDGE FAMILY. 



3 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 eastward to the Caucasus, and 

 northward to the Baltic. Spread over 

 a great part of Britain, but chiefly in the 

 west. Fl. summer. 



Fig. 1089. 



III. CXiADIUM. CLADIUM. 



A single species, distinguished from Beaksedge chiefly on account of 

 the thick texture of the fruit. Its habit is very different from that 

 of our Beaksedges, but comes very near to that of some exotic species 

 of that genus. 



1. Prickly Cladium. Cladium Mariscus, Br. (Pig. 1070.) 



{Schcenus, Eng. Bot. t. 950.) 



A tall, rush-like plant, with a creeping rootstock, and leafy stems, 3 

 to 6 feet high. Leaves nearly erect, the lowest nearly as long as the 

 stem, smooth and sheathing at the base, then keeled, and ending in a 

 long, triangular point ; the keel and edges very rough and cutting, 

 being bordered by minute, sharp teeth. Spikelets of a pale brown, in 

 small but very numerous clusters, arranged in somewhat corymbose 

 panicles in the upper axils, the whole forming a terminal, more or less 

 leafy, oblong panicle, often above a foot long. Each spikelet is 2 or 3 

 lines long, rather pointed, with the glumes imbricated all round the 

 >axis, containing usually one perfect flower in the innermost glume, an 



