42 Monotropa uniflora.
ing, terminal flower. Scale-like leaves small towards the root, larger
above, ovate-obtuse, nerved, the nerves from five to seven. Corolla
persistent, consisting of about eight petals, which are channelled and
connected to the base of the germ. Stamina ten, filaments pubescent,
anthers kidney-shaped and horizontally peltate. Style small; stigma
smooth, orbicular, becoming pitcher-shaped, depressed in shape of a
hollow cone at the apex, having the margin viscid and raised by a
glandular structure. Capsule consisting of five cells and five valves,
containing a great number of very small, brownish seeds. Grows in
rich shady woods, flowering in May and June.
The genus Monotropa, as modified by late botanists, contains but
two species. The present plant is the most common of them, and is
greatly prized by reason of its delicate appearance, every part of it
except the root and anthers being snow-white, and having the appearance
of the most delicate white wax preparation. It dries entirely
black, the anthers alone retaining their original colour. The figure
represents the plant the size of nature, and is left untinted, a delicate
engraving being the only mode of representing a pure white plant.
v a ih u b e a
SCIRPUS PLANIFOLIUS.
FLAT-LEAVED CLUB-RUSH.
Triandria Monogynia, Linn. Cyperoidese, Juss.
GENERIC CHARACTER.
Calix scales chaffy, imbricated on all sides in a spike. Corolla none. Style filiform,
unbearded, deciduous. Seed one, naked, or surrounded with involucellate
setae or threads.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER.
Culm triquetrous, a span high, nearly naked, cespitose, leaves nearly radical, alternate,
linear, flat, keeled, scabrous, the lower ones broad, short-nerved, pointed,
the rest three-nerved, equal in length to the stem. Spike terminal, ovate,
acute, 6-flowered, bracteated; bractea yellowish; ovate, spit pointed, longer
than the spike. Cal. glume ovate, pointed, yellowish, keel green. Fist, bifid
and trifid. Seed brown, triquetrous, bristles 3, as long as the seed. Muhl.
This small and very pretty species of rush was first described by
Muhlenburgh, who affixed the above specific name to it as charac