SCHCENUS compreffus.
Comjirejfed Bög-rußi.
TRIANDRIA Manogynia.
G en. C hau. Glumes chaffy, cluftered; the outer
ones barren. Cor. none. Seed i , roundifh, among1
the glumes.
Spec. C har. Stem roundiflh,' naked. Spike two-
ranked, fhorter than the bradlea, which is fimple.
Spikelets many-flowered. Leaves flat.
Syn . Schoenus compreffus. Linn. Sp. Pi. 65. Sm.
FI. Brit. 44. Hudf. 15. With. 80. Hull. ia .
Relh. 17. Dick/. H. Sicc.fafc. 3. a.
Gramen cyperoides, fpicä fimplici comprefsa dif-
tichä. Rail Syn. 435.
A N A T IV E of turfy bogs, and fpongy meadows, which
ftiould feem to be lefs rare than it has generally been fuppofed >
in Norfolk atleaft it is not at all uncommon, flowering in July,
nor are its bright-chefnut polithed fpikes eafily overlooked, if
the furrounding herbage does not conceal them from our view.
The root is a little creeping. Stems fimple, fcarcely a foot
high, upright, roundith, fmooth, naked except at the very bafe.
Leaves 3 or 4 invefting the bottom of the ftem, Iheathing,
alternate, flat, with a projecting nerve, of agrafs green, fmooth
except at the margin. Spike folitary, terminal, compofed of
feveral fpikelets alternately difpofed in a ranks, the lower ones
a little remote, and the loweft fubtended by a braCtea, which
commonly exceeds the general fpike in length, and is triangular
and rough at the end. The outer glumes are barren; each of
the reft ferves as a calyx to each floret. Stamina 3. Style
fimple, with a downy cloven ftigma. Seed invefted at the bafe
with feveral rough briftles, fhowing a near approach to the
genus Eriophorutrt.
This is certainly what Linnaeus originally meant for his
Car ex uliginofa, he having negle&ed to examine the fru&ifi-
cation, trailing probably to the refemblance of the plant to
C. arenaria, &c.
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