CTPERACEJB. 



891 



Y. 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 longer 



than the glume-like bract at their base 1. Broad B. 



Spikelets dark-brown, 2- to 4-flowered, almost enclosed in the 



long, glume-like bract at their base 2. Narrow B. 



1. Broad Blysmus. Blysmus compressus, Panz. (Fig. 1073.) 

 (Schcemis, Eng. Bot. t. 791.) 



Stems 6 to 8 inches high, with a creep- 

 ing rootstock. Leaves much like those of 

 the common carnation Carex, shorter 

 than the stem, 1 to \\ lines broad, flat 

 or keeled. Spike terminal, about an 

 inch long, consisting of about 10 or 12 

 oblong spikelets, closely sessile on oppo- 

 site 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 hypogynous 

 bristles. Nut somewhat flattened, taper- 

 ing into the 2-cleft style. 



In bogs and marshes, in Europe and 

 Eussian Asia, not extending to the ex- 

 treme north, and yet a mountain plant 

 in southern Europe and the Caucasus. 

 Occurs in many parts of England, rarely 



in Cork County, Ireland, and possibly in southern Scotland, but 

 following species, or the black Sckoenus, have often been mistaken 

 it. FL summer. 



Fig. 1073. 



the 

 for 



2. Narrow Blysmus. Blysmus rufus, Link. (Eig. 1074.) 



(Schamus, Eng. Bot. t. 1010.) 



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 



