902 



THE SEDGE FAMILY. 



VII. COTTONSEDGS. ERIOPHORUM. 



Habit and characters of Scir_pus, 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 tbese 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 

 hemisphere, and most abundant in high latitudes or at considerable 

 elevations. 



Spikelets solitary. 



Spikelets 2 or 3 lines long, oblong, and brown. Hypogy- 



nous bristles 6 to each flower 1. Alpine C. 



Spikelets above 6 lines long, ovoid, of a dark olive-green. 



Hypogynous bristles very numerous 2. Sheathing C. 



Spikelets several to each stem 3. Common C. 



1. Alpine Cottonsedge. Eriophorum alpinum, Linn. 



(Fig. 1089.) 



(Eng. Bot. t. 311.) 



In everything but the long bristles 

 this plant precisely resembles the tufted 

 Scirpus. It has the same densely tufted 

 stems, 6 to 10 inches high, with imbri- 

 cate sheaths at the base ; the inner ones 

 with very short leafy tips, and small, 

 brown, solitary and terminal spikelets. 

 After flowering the hypogynous bristles, 

 about 6 to each flower, form a silky tuft 

 attaining an inch in length. 



In bogs, in the high mountain ranges 

 of Europe and Russian Asia, or at high 

 latitudes all round the Arctic Circle. 

 In Britain it is perhaps now extinct, 

 the bog, near Forfar where it was for- 

 merly found being now drained, and if 

 it be not found in other parts of the 

 Scotch Highlands it must be expunged 



Fig. 1089. 



from our Flora. Fl. summer. 



2. Sheathing Cottonsedge. Eriophorum vaginatum, Linn. 



(Fig. 1090.) 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 873.) 

 Stems tufted, a foot high or more, covered at the base with a fyw loose 



