HEMICAREX AND ITS ALLIES. 375 
androgynous, consisting of one female flower at base and 1-4 or 
more male flowers above it (cf. Nees, Genera Monocot. 2, Elyna 
spicata). "Towards the summit of the inflorescence the spikelets 
have a tendency to become male, i. e. the female flower at the 
base is obsolete; towards the base of the inflorescence the male 
portion of the spikelet is reduced, often to a rudiment or obso- 
lete, the female spikelets are arranged in compound spikes. The 
three cases of 1-flowered female spikelets, complete androgynous 
spikelets, many-flowered male spikelets, may occur in one inflo- 
rescence. I fear that,in some of the characters taken from inflo- 
rescence, laid down as absolutely generic by authors, the whole 
inflorescence in a well-developed plant has not been sufficiently 
examined, 
In the inflorescence of Carex pulicaris we consider the terminal 
male flowers as forming one spikelet, each of the female utricles 
we consider a spikelet. This we may call an androgynous simple 
solitary spike, and it represents exactly the inflorescence of the 
simple-spiked section of Hemicarezx. 
In the inflorescence of Carex sylvatica we have the lower spikes 
of many female 1-flowered spikelets, the spike being not rarely 
terminated by a single many-flowered spikelet; the uppermost 
spikes are usually wholly male of one very numerous-flowered 
spikelet, though it is not rare to find a terminal spike with some 
female 1-flowered spikelets at its base. This represents exactly 
the inflorescence of the compound-spiked section of Hemicarex. 
Kobresia differs in that the spikelets are either complete, 2. e. 
androgynous with one female flower, or in spikes of several 
female spikelets without males. But occasionally we find andro- 
gynous spikes with two females at the base; these we consider 
to consist of one complete androgynous, and one female, spikelet, 
and they are technically Hemicarex. Mr. Bentham has placed 
Kobresia pseudo-laxa in a different genus from Hemicarez (olim 
Kobresia) laxa; but, in the field, I always supposed this species 
(as are many others) somewhat dimorphic, the male flowers pre- 
dominating in one form, the female in another; and I supposed 
Kobresia pseudo-laxa the male, Hemicarex laxa the female form of 
the same thing, a view which Mr. Bentham will not hear of. I 
hope to have opportunity in N. Kashmir or the Karakorum for 
coming to a decided opinion on this important point. 
In Kobresia and Hemicarex, in the androgynous spikelet the 
male portion is quite sessile, i. e. there is no lengthening of the 
