SCHEUCHZERIA palustris.
Marsh Scheuchzeria.
HEXANDRIA Trigynia.
Gen. Char. Cal. none. Petals 6. Stigmas sessile,
lateral. Capsules 3 , superior, inflated. Seeds 1 or 2.
Anthers linear.
Spec. Char..............
Syn. Scheuchzeria palustris. Linn. Sp. P I. 482. F it
L a p p . ed. 2 . 103. t. 10. / . 1. Ehrh. Phytoph. 24.
F I. Dan. t. 76. H all. Hist. v. 2 . 166. Roth.
Germ. v. 2 . 4 i9 .
Juncoidi affinis palustris. Sckeuckz. A g r. 3 3 6 .
Gramen junceum aquaticum, semirie racemoso. Loes.
Pruss. 114. t. 28..
I t has now and then in the course of this work fallen to our
lot to add a new genus to the Flora of Britain, and such is
the plant before us, discovered by the Rev. Mr. Dalton, in
June 1787, growing abundantly, along with Lysimachia thyr-
siflora, in Lakeby Car near Borough-bridge, Yorkshire. This
at least is no outcast of gardens, for we are pretty certain that
no person ever attempted to cultivate it. Even on the Alps of
Switzerland it is considered as extremely rare. Haller never
found it, and suspected it to be lost. We have however received
Swiss specimens from the late Mr. Davall. In Lapland
and Norway the Scheuchzeria is less uncommon. It grows
always in very wet spongy bogs. Linnaeus named this “ grassy
alpine genus” after two brothers, one of whom excelled in
the knowledge of grasses, the other of alpine plants. See Grit.
Bot. 79.
The root is long, creeping, scaly, and perennial. Stems
erect, simple, a span high. Leaves few, sheathing, rushy,
semicylindrical, rising above the top of the stem, mostly radical,
each having a pore at its point, first remarked by
Mr. Dalton, through which water oozes when the leaf is
compressed. Flowers in a simple, terminal, bracteated cluster,
greenish brown, small and inconspicuous. Petals recurved,
equal and uniform,—yellowish green. Stamens slender and
flaccid. Anthers brown, vertical, linear, bursting by 2 longitudinal
internal pores. Germens ovate, 3, occasionally 4,
5 or 6, with lateral, sessile, oblong, downy stigmas. Capsules
globose, inflated, each containing 1 or 2 roundish seeds.
—The analogy of Tofieldia, t. 536, and other genera, leads us
to consider this flower as having a corolla rather than a calyx,
about which Linnaeus is at variance with himself.
If V