[ 1575 ] & y
S C II (K X U S fuscus.
Brown-headed, Bog-rush.
TRIANDRIA Monogynia.
G en. Char. Glumes chaffy, clustered; the outer ones
barren. Cor. none. Seed J, roundish, among the
glumes.
Spec. Char. Stem triangular, leafy. Flowers clustered.
Leaves thread-shaped. Seed with three bristles at
the base.
Syn . Schoenus fuscus. Linn. Sp. PI. 1664. Ehrh.
Beitr. v. 4. 154. Phytoph. 1 . Roth. Germ. v. 2. 48. Turn, and Dillw. Bot. Guide, 753.
Cyperus minor angustifolius palustris, capitulis fuscis
paleaceis. Moris, sect. 8. t. 1 1 . ƒ 4 0 ? B ill, in
Raii Syn. 427 ?
G r A T HE RED very sparingly on a bog near Killarney, Ireland,
by Mr. Mackay, in August 1805. The same had previously
been found on Cromlyn bog, near Swansea, by Mr. E. Forster.
W e consider it as a very interesting, if not altogether a new,
discovery. What the plant of Dillenius and Bobart may be,
is not very clear from the figure above cited; still less can we
tell what Hudson may have observed. In the FI. Brit, this
species is confounded with S. alius, t. 985, and we are obliged
to those excellent observers Ehrhart and Roth for their true
specific differences, as well as for specimens of fuscus which
agree with those of Linnaeus.
The whole plant is smaller, and the leaves narrower and
more thread-shaped, than S. alius. The spikes are constantly
o f a shining reddish brown. But the most satisfactory marks
exist in the parts of fructification. S. fuscus has 3 stamina,
allrns but 2; while alius has about 10 bristles at the base of
the seed, fuscus but 3, alternate with the permanent stamina.
The greater length of the style in the latter, indicated by
Ehrhart, appears to us not so invariable, and perhaps may be
different in different stages of its growth.