890 



THE SEDGE FAMILY. 



Tier. 1071. 



Stem 6 to 10 inches, with few short, 

 erect, subulate leaves ; the floral ones 

 or bracts projecting an inch or more 

 beyond the flowers. Spikelets brown, 

 usually forming two rather loose clusters, 

 one terminal, the other on a slender pe- 

 dicel in the axil of the next leaf ; each 

 spikelet about 2\ lines long, containing 

 usually 2 flowers, with 3 or 4 empty 

 outer glumes. Hypogynous bristles about 

 6, small and very unequal. 



In bogs, chiefly in northern and west- 

 ern Europe, in the mountains of central 

 Europe, and in North America. In Bri- 

 tain, confined to southern and western 

 England and Ireland. Fl. summer. 



2. White Beaksedge. Rhynchospora alba, Vahl. (Fig. 1072.) 

 (Schamus, Eng. Bot. t. 985.) 



Stems 6 to 9 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 peduncles in 

 the axils of the next leaves. Each spike- 

 let 2 to 2\ lines long, with 1 or 2 flowers, 

 and 2, 3, or 4 empty glumes below them. 

 Hypogynous bristles about 12, more ap- 

 parent than in the brown JB., being usually 

 rather longer than the nut, although 

 shorter than the glume. 



In bogs, in northern and central Eu- 

 rope, northern Asia, and North Ame- 

 rica. Generally distributed over Bri- 

 tain. Fl. summer and autumn. 



Fig. 1072. 



