374 MR. C. B. CLARKE ON 
On Hemicarex, Benth., and its Allies. 
By C. B. Cuaret, F.R.S., F.LS. 
[Read April 5, 1883.] 
THE separation of Kobresia, Uncinia, and Schenoxiphium from 
Carex generically was easy, so long as a few species only of these 
smaller genera were known. Kobresia had the glume of the 
female flower concave, open or with the margins slightly con- 
nected near the base; Carew had a complete utricle. But in the 
considerable number of species now known of Kobresia (including 
Hemicarex, Benth.), this character is found to become illusory 
by degrees: the margins of the glume are exceedingly thin and 
brought close together ; whether they are actually connate for 
more or less than half the length of the glume appears a matter 
of very slight importance to establish a genus upon, and from the 
exceeding fragility of the scarious margins it is exceedingly diffi- 
cult to determine; different female flowers from the same plant, 
treated with every care under water, give different results. 
The genus Uncinia was separated from Carex by the presence 
of a long seta within the female glume, usually exserted from it 
and hooked at the top. But in Carew microglochin there is a 
similar seta exserted from the female glume, and more distinctly 
hooked than in species placed by all authors in Uncinia. For 
comparison, I have arranged it here, as Sprengel did, under 
Uncinia, though Mr. Bentham has retained it in Carex. I feel 
sure that, had C. microglochin been found in the southern hemi- 
sphere instead of in the northern, authors would have placed it 
without hesitation in Uncinia. There are, in short, one or two 
species intermediate between Carex and Uncinia, and which may 
be placed according to taste in either: this is no reason, when we 
have a well-marked genus of more than 500 species like Careg, 
that we should destroy its homogeneous character by loading it 
with another group (Uncinia) well-marked on the whole and long 
established: it would be a very good reason, had Uncinia never 
yet been separated from Carez, against making the species of 
Uncinia into a new genus. 
Our old land-marks thus failing us, Eichler, Beeckeler, Ben- 
tham, &c. have relied more on the inflorescence and on the 
number of times the floral axis is divided for the demarcation of 
genera. 
The “complete spikelet" in Kobresia and the allied genera is 
