CYPEKACE^E. 



889 



incomplete one in the next, the 4 or 5 

 outer glumes gradually shorter and al- 

 ways empty. Stamens usually 2. Nut 

 tapering at the top, the outer coating 

 thick and fleshy when fresh, brittle when 

 dry. 



In deep bogs and marshy places, in 

 most temperate and some tropical re- 

 gions of the globe, extending northward 

 in Europe to southern Scandinavia. In 

 Britain, thinly scattered over England 

 and Ireland, and very local in Scotland. 

 Fl. late in summer. 



Fig. 1070. 



IV. BEAKSEDGE. KHYNCHOSPOKA. 



Spikelets several, in one or more clusters, forming terminal or axil- 

 lary heads or panicles. Each spikelet oblong, more or less pointed ; 

 the glumes imbricated all round the axis, 1 to 3 of the upper or inner 

 ones containing each a flower, the lower or outer ones shorter and 

 empty. Stamens 3 or rarely 2. Hypogynous bristles 6 or some- 

 times more, shorter than the glumes. JN"ut globular or laterally flat- 

 tened, tapering into a 2 -cleft style. 



A considerable genus, widely dispersed over the surface of the globe, 

 formerly united with Schoenus, but well distinguished by the glumes 

 imbricated all round the axis, not arranged in two opposite rows. 



Spikelets brown. Outer bract projecting an inch beyond the 



flowers 1. Brown B. 



Spikelets white. Outer bract shorter or scarcely longer than 



the flowers 2. White B. 



1. Brown Beaksedge. Bhynehospora fusca, 8m. (Fig. 1071.) 

 (Schcenus, Eng. Bot. t. 1575, not good.) 

 Near the white B., but rather firmer, with a creeping rootstock. 



