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SCIRPUS Holoschoenus.
Hound cluster-headed Club-rush.
TRIANDRIA Monogynia.
G en. Char. Glumes chaffy, imbricated every way,
all fertile. Cor. Hone. Seed 1.
S pec. Char. Stem round, naked. Flowers in round,
sessile or stalked, heads. Bractea o f two unequal
leaves. Leaves channelled.
Syn. Scirpus Holoschoenus. Linn. Sp. PI. 72. Sm.
FI. B r it. 53. Huds. 19. With. 15. Hull. 14.
Hicks. D r . PI. 2.
S. maritimus, capitulis rotundioribus glomeratis. Raii
Syn. 4 2 9 .
S e n t from Braunton Boroughs, a sandy tract on the Devonshire
coast, by Dr. Wavell to Mr. Lambert, to whom we are
obliged for it. Ray and Dr. Goodenough have observed it in
the same place, and Hudson in Somersetshire and Hampshire.
The last-named botanist mentions the Sc. romanus, which
I am convinced is a small variety of this, as growing in
marshes near Throgmorton, Worcestershire. No plant varies
more as to luxuriance; for I have aTeneriffe specimen with at
least 60 heads, gathered by the excellent Masson, who, after
disinterestedly devoting his life to the service of botany, has
lately finished his career in North America, universally lamented.
S. Holoschcenus is perennial, and flowers late in the autumn.
The root forms dense tufts. Stems upright, commonly
2 or 3 feet high, round, smooth, with a membranous
sheath at their base. Leaves radical, linear, acute, smooth,
marked with a white chanuel on their upper side. Stem
crowned with 2 unequal bracteas exactly like the leaves, and
bearing several globular brown heads, either sessile, or on
stalks which are sometimes branched. Each head is composed
of innumerable spikelets, and those of imbricated,
obtuse, carinated, downy glumes. Stamens 3. Stigmas 3.
— It is remarkable that botanists in the South of France and
in Italy often take this plant, without examination, for Juncus
conglomerate. See Tqur on the Continent, v. 1. 164, 265.