S C IR P U S multicaulis.
Many-stalked Club-rush.
TRIANDRIA Monogyma.
G en. C har. Glumes chaffy, imbricated every way,
all fertile. Cor. none. Seed 1.
Spec. Char. Stem round, sheathed at the base. Spike
ovate, terminal. Glumes obtuse, all equal. Root
fibrous.
Syn. Scirpus multicaulis. Sm. FI, Brit. 48.
S. palustris varietas. Linn. FI. Lapp. ed. 2. 16.
S. multicaulis, equiseti capitulis minoribus. Bel.
Rudb. 28. ƒ 2.
T h e Scirpus in the annexed plate, though entirely unnoticed
by British botanists till Mr. Mackay found it in Skye, has,
since its publication in the FI. Britannica, been detected in
many different parts of England and Scotland. W e have it
from Cornwall, Sussex, Yorkshire, and Norfolk. It grows on
turf bogs and wet commons, flowering in July, and can only
have been passed by as the common S. palustris, from which
however it proves on examination clearly distinct. Our specimens
were gathered near Yarmouth by Mr. Turner and Mr.
Wig g, but its first discoverer in England was Mr. E. Forster.
The root is perennial, formed of long strong perpendicular
fibres, and does not creep. Stems very numerous, growing in
a tuft, 8 or 10 inches high, simple, round, smooth, leafless,
closely invested at the base with a single or double tight abrupt
sheath, of a red or purplish colour, but without the numerous
intermediate scales of S. ccespitosus, t. 1029. Leaves none.
Spike erect, solitary, ovate, of a red or rusty brown, many-
floWered. Glumes all of equal size, bluntish, imbricated. One
or two of the lower flowers are often viviparous. The seed is
brown and triangular, surrounded by a few short rough bristles.