S CHOENUS monoicus.
Monoecious Bog-rush.
TRIANDRIA Monogynia.
G en. Char. Glumes chaffy, clustered; the outer ones
barren. Cor. none. Seed 1 , roundish, among
the glumes.
S pec. C har. Stem round, naked. Spike compound.
Flowers monoecious, in pairs. Leaves channelled,
rough.
i . HE honour of making this singular plant known is due to
Mr. Dickson, who gathered it in the county of Durham in
1799. The Rev. Mr. Harriman had indeed found it in 1797 ;
but not being aware of its novelty, he liberally disclaims the
merit of the discovery. For the same reason I can pretend to
little of the honour, though I gathered the same species on
Mount Cenis in August 1787, having ever since kept it unsettled
in my herbarium. Indeed I have been deterred by the
extraordinary difficulty of settling its genus. Every body,
even the able Mr. Schkuhr when it was sent to him, took it
for a Carex, and the greatest praise is due to Mr. W . Brunton
for judging it a Schoenus. Mr. Harriman, to whom we are
obliged for specimens, finds it wild on the mountain of
Cronkley, Durham; also near Widdy bank in Teesdale forest.
The roots form dense perennial tufts, scaly at the crown
with the brown bases of old leaves. Stems erect, solitary, 3
to 5 inches high, simple, naked, round, striated, angular and
rough-edged at the summit. Leaves radical, sheathing the
base of the stem', recurved, narrow, linear, channelled, acute,
rough-edged. Stipula very short. Spike upright, an inch
long, branched, brown, with a sheathing, keeled, brown, membranous
bractea at each of its subdivisions, the lowermost
pointed, and sometimes leafy. Flowers sessile, a male and a
female together, each with its own simple glume which resembles
the braclese. Stamina 3, capillary, longish. Anther®
linear, yellow. Germen oblong. Style simple. Stigmas 3,
linear, downy. Seed without any other covering than the
glume, oblong, triangular, horny, smooth, crowned with the
base of the style.
The want of a tunic, and the structure of every part, prove
it a Schoenus,