34. Flor. Dan. t. 2300. fid. Kunze. K unze
Riedgr. t. 22. (excl.? b—e.)
C. axillaris. Fries Mant. 2. 57 (?). fid. Koch et
Kunze.
C. Guestphalica. Böen. Cat. Sem. Hort. Monastfi?)
fid. Kunze.
C. Hailstoni. Gibs, in Phyt. v. ]. 870 ?
Vignea Bönninghauseniana. Reich. Ft. Ger. Exc.
58.
m-
I HIS plant having hitherto been much confounded with
C. axillaris, little is at present known of its distribution in
Britain. It was first recognised as a distinct species at Balls
Wood near Hertford in June 1842; but in the herbarium
of Dr. Boott we have seen specimens received undenthe name
of C. axillaris from Sir W. J. Hooker, and gathered at Killin,
Perthshire, in 1834. Dr. Boott also possesses specimens
gathered at Culreach, near Gordon Castle, Bamffshire, by
Mr. W. A. Stables. We learn from Mr. C. C. Babington
that the “ C. axillaris” found at Crichton Castle near Edinburgh
is our present plant, and that he possesses specimens
gathered at Congleton, Cheshire, by Mr. E. C. Wilson, at
Esher, Surrey, by Mr. H. C. Watson, and at Pulborough,
Sussex, by Mr. Borrer. He also refers authentic specimens
of C. Hailstoni, gathered at Hastings, Sussex, by Mr. S. Hailstone,
to this species. Dr. Bromfield has found it likewise in
the Isle of Wight, In the Hertford station it grows in and
about the edges of several small ponds in a thick wood of oak
and hornbeam on a clay soil, with C. Pseudo-cyperus, vulpina
and remota: C. axillaris, paniculata, pendula and stricta,
Good., are found within a short distance, as also Calamagrostis
lanceolata and Epigeios, (Enanthe Phellandrium (vera), and
Pyrus torminalis.
Both on dry ground and when growing in the water, our
plant has much the habit of C. paniculata; except that being
less rigid, its foliage and stems spread more uniformly outwards.
In the water it forms large hassocks of a foot in diameter
and height, sometimes bearing two or three hundred
stems, which with the foliage spread outwards from the centre
of the tuft, and thus occupy a circle of nearly eight feet in
diameter. Thus, though extremely difficult to distinguish
from C. axillaris by a specific character, its habit is widely
different; C. axillaris never, as far as we have seen, growing
immersed or forming hassocks, but having a more loosely
tufted habit than most of its allies. The stems of C. Boenning-
hausiana are more slender, but more rigid than those of
C. axillaris; its foliage is of a darker green; its leaves are
channeled so as to form the half of a hollow cylinder throughout
the greater part of their length, as in C. paniculata;
whereas in C. axillaris the angular groove occupies the central
line only of the leaf, and the edges are flat. C. Boenning-
hausiana is further distinguishable by the whitish hue of its
spikes, occasioned by the scarious margins of its glumes, those
of C. axillaris being much greener. The spike of the former
is usually much longer, more slender and less dense, as are
also its lower spikelets, which are furnished with more numerous
secondary spikelets alternately disposed, and not crowded
into the axil as in C. axillaris. In both the lowest spikelet
is usually subtended by a foliaceous bractea about as long as
the spike; but in C. Boenninghausiana most of the remaining
bracteas are merely scales with a nerve not extending beyond
the point, whereas in C. axillaris the nerve protrudes as a
bristle about as tall as the accompanying spikelet. The fruit
of the former is one-third shorter, more erect, and not longer
than the scale; while that of C. axillaris considerably exceeds
it. But in neither species do we find the barren florets inferior,
as is asserted by most authors; in both the upper portion
of the main spike is chiefly barren and the lower fertile;
and the same arrangement always prevails in the ultimate
spikelets; though in the compound spikelets, the barren florets
of some of the lateral spicellse must of course be below the
fertile ones of others; and very rarely a single barren floret
or even two or three occur amongst the fertile in the same
ultimate spikelet; but never, in any specimens that we have
examined, at the base. In C. Boenninghausiana some of the
spikes (chiefly those rising from the circumference of the tuft)
have the barren florets much more numerous than the fertile:
in one fine specimen we counted 236 barren to 41 fertile;
while in those springing from the centre of the tuft the proportion
is reversed; one of these contained but 9 barren
florets, while the fertile were 104; and these latter are more
slender and less compound than the submasculine spikes. The
same peculiarity is found in C. paniculata, but in C. axillaris