VI.— THE BRANCHED BUR-REED. 
Sparganium erectum Linne. 
T HERE are many charms alike of structure and of association that belong to our 
water-side flora. The neighbouring water forms a cool and refreshing back- 
ground for the observer, whilst the constantly renewed and thus well aerated supply 
at the roots secures a healthy and vigorous growth of the plants themselves. Among 
them there are also many forms of exceptional beauty both of form and colour. The 
floating blossoms of Water-lilies or the graceful foliage of the Arrow-head may be 
succeeded towards the bank by a tangle in which Tufted Vetch may straggle over the 
slender branches of the Water-plantain, the sky-blue of the Forget-me-not peep out 
between the golden stars of the Flea-bane, or the blushing umbels of the Flowering 
Rush stand over the large purple blossoms of the Meadow Cranes-bill. 
Less striking in colouring but no less beautiful in form, the Branched Bur-reed 
is a frequent member of such associations of plants, whose attractions have, we think, 
been too often overlooked. 
Like its near ally the Bulrush, it belongs to a Family consisting of a single 
genus. The Sparganiace# , like the Typhace<e> are perennial herbaceous plants with 
their horizontal rhizomes buried in the mud, while the leaf-bearing aerial stem rises 
above the water. As in the Typhace<e> too, these stems are round, with cylindrical 
internodes becoming somewhat smaller upwards, smooth and solid, and the leaves 
are all cauline, springing, that is, from the aerial stem and not from the rhizome. 
The leaves are also distichous, simple, linear, and entire. It should, perhaps, be 
noted, however, that when these plants are young there is but little sign of the 
horizontally creeping rhizome, the tufted roots springing practically from the base of 
the aerial stem. The leaves in some species are triangular in section at the base, with 
three concave surfaces, but become flatter towards their apex. Their long parallel- 
sided apical portions give the genus Sparganium its name, which is derived from the 
Greek cnrapyavov , sparganon , a swaddling band ; and, though generally ascending, they 
are not so strikingly erect as those of Typha. Softer and more pliable than those of 
their neighbours the Sedges, they are often used for packing, and their edges do not 
cut the hands of the gatherer as do those of the last-named group. 
The distinctive feature of the group, however, is the spherical inflorescence, just 
as the cylindrical arrangement is characteristic ol the Typhace<e. Like their allies, 
they are monoecious, and the clusters of staminate flowers are higher up the stem than 
those of carpellate ones. This practically implies that the carpellate flowers are 
formed earlier, and thus explains why, in this group, they mature sooner than the 
stamens, the stigmas being in a sticky receptive condition before the stamens are 
ready to discharge their pollen. The wind has thus to carry the pollen to the stigma 
of some other individual which is in a somewhat more backward condition. Such 
“ protogyny ” is, however, a general rule among wind-pollinated, or anemophilous , 
