8o
[ 1694 ]
S C I R P U S triqueter.
Triangular Club-rush.
TRIANDRIA Monogynia.
G en. Char. Glumes chaffy, imbricated every way,
all fertile. Cor. none. Seed 1 .
Spec. Char. Stem triangular, straight, naked, sharp-
pointed. Spikes lateral, sessile or pedunculated.
Stigmas two. Syn. Scirpus triqueter. Linn. Mant. 1. 29. Sm. FI.
Brit. 55. With. 76. Hull. 14.
S. mucronatus (3. Huds. 20.
Juncus acutus maritimus, caule triquetro maximo
molli, procerior nostras. Rail Syn. 428.
jS. Scirpus mucronatus. With. ed. 2. 50. Huds. 20, a.
Juncus acutus maritimus, caule triquetro rigido, mu-
crone pungente. Dill, in Raii Syn. 429.
F o u n d , though rarely, about the muddy banks of great
rivers exposed to the tide, especially in the Thames, above and
below London. Our specimens were gathered in August at
Lambeth, Battersea, &c.
Root perennial, creeping, forming large entangled tufts.
Stems a yard high, erect, naked, triangular, smooth, sharp-
pointed, the angles more or less acute. Spikes near the top,
lateral, generally, but not always, accompanied by a small
sharp floral leaf. They vary much in number, as well as m
the length of their stalks, being all sometimes quite sessile,
in which state the plant has been taken, though very wrongly,
for S. mucronatus of Linnaeus. The spikes have a few scales
between them, and are ovate, their glumes red-brown, keeled,
pointed, with a pale, dilated, jagged margin. The stamens
are accompanied by 2 or 3 short rough intermediate bristles,
and the stigmas are 2 * . The variety /3, found near the sea*
is said to be more hard and rigid in its stem.
* W hich was justly observed b y the late M r. W . B runton to,.be the case likewise
w ith S .p a lustris, though in pur t. 131 three are expressed,^, T he error
arose from S. mulHcaulis not being then well understood. J m fM r - T u rn e rs
Bot. Guide 667. In the preceding page, indeed, my lafnentedS<ojTe^pondent has
charged me w ith an error of his ow n respecting Veronica. C htttM j$ys,9» his spe-
cimens, now before me, prove. »