498 CYi. cyperaceyE. {Kobresia. 
stalked, glumes many-nerved. E.B.S. t. 2886. E. triquetrum 
Hoppe. 
Bogs in England, rare. Near Halnaby in Yorkshire, about 4 m. 
from Darlington; in Whitemoor Pond, Surrey, half-way between 
Guildford and the Woking station on the S. Western Railway, 
6> 7. — Ihe above three species seem distinct: the first and last have 
scabrous or downy stalks to the spikelets, particularly E. gracile, 
but differ in the foliage and glumes : E. anyustifolium has an inter- 
mediate kind of leaf, but the stalks of its spikes are quite glabrous. 
Mr. Bentham says, however, that the characters “ do not appear to 
be nearly so constant as has been supposed,” and he therefore unites 
them all under the name of E. polystachyon L. 
*** Flowers imperfect. (Gen. 10, 11.) 
10. Kobresia Willd. Kobresia. 
SpikeleUt 1 — 2-flowered, each with a broad sheathing glume 
(bractea ?) at the base, several in each spike ; the spikes approx- 
imate near the apex of the stem and forming a compound spike. 
Flowers all imperfect. — Barren spikelets 1 -flowered. Scales 
0. Stam. 3. — Fertile spikelets 1 — 2-flowered. Upper Jl. sterile 
with 3 stamens, or rudimentary, or wanting. Lower jl. fertile 
with a convolute scale (glume?) next the axis. Style 1. Stig- 
mas 3. Perigynium 0 (except the scale). — In habit nearly 
allied to Scirpus and Blysmus, but the flowers are monoecious ; 
it also resembles some species of Carex, but has not the urceo- 
late perigynium of that genus. — Named in honour of M. de 
Kobres of Augsburg, a patron of botany. 
1. K. caricina Willd. ( Sedge-like K.) ; scales obtuse without 
an accessory process. Eiyna Mert. et Koch. Schoenus monoi- 
cus Sin. : E. B. t. 1410. 
Moors in Durham and Yorkshire ; Cronkley Fell, and about 
Widdy Bank in Teesdale Forest. Schroine-ach-Lochan (? Sronach- 
an-Lochan), Breadalbane. 11 . 8. — Stems scarcely a span high, tufted, 
naked, longer than the narrow linear leaves at their base. Glumes 
and scales convolute, brown. Scarcely two original describers have 
defined this genus in the same way : some call the glume a brac- 
tea, and the scale a glume ; others consider the glume and scale 
to be two pieces of a perigynium, and that there is neither a brac- 
tea nor a glume; by some there is said to be a glume and also a 
perigynium of two pieces, while others think that the pistillum is 
included within one scale, but that there is in the fertile floret a 
second scale when there is also a floret with stamens ; lastly, some 
consider what we have called a spike (composed of spikelets) to be a 
spikelet compound at the base. The plant still requires to be care- 
fully examined when recent in its different stages. In K. laxa 
N. ab E. the scales are acute, with a filiform accessory process. 
