i.- J
ir-*
- Y
B A R R E N L E A V E S .
The barren leaves, Tab. 36, B. and Tab. 37 , are entirely covered by
the vaginæ, till they attain the height o f ten or twelve inches ; in this
ftate they are o f a mixed brown and green colour, terminating in an
acute point at top, and, by the numerous divifions o f the vaginæ, feem
as i f furrounded with a rough, hairy, or briftly covering.
From the joints, towards the top of the ftem, the fecond leaves firft
make their appearance in clofe circles round the bafe o f each vagina, as
Fig. B. Tab. 26. Each circle is furrounded at its bafe by the brown
lafcinæ o f the vagina next below it.
The fecond leaves when full grown. Tab. 3 7 , are quadrangular, five
or fix inches long, and grow about thirty in a circle ; each confifts of
feven or eight joints, with black vaginæ, and having a proper brown vagina,
fupported by a black fcale at its bafe. b, the proper vagina, a,
the black fcale. Tab. 37 .
The barren leaves, in a proper foil, rife to the height of five or fix
feet, and when freih and full grown are very elegant. The figure. Tab.
3 7 , reprefents four joints of tile firft leaf, with three circles of fecond
leaves, and, I think, gives a better idea of the plant, than could have
been conveyed by giving a whole figure, fo much reduced in fize, as to
bring it into the compals o f my plate.
Grows in marihy places, and about the borders o f rivers. The fpecimens
from which I took the figures, were fent me, in a freih ftate, by
my obliging friend Mr. Edward Robloil, of Darlington, in the county
ot Durham.
O