Tab. 6940. 

 CAREX scaposa. 



Native of South China. 



Nat. Ord. Cyperace,e. — Tribe Carice^e. 

 Genus Carex, Linn.; {Benth. et Hook.f. Gen. PI. vol. iii. p. 1073.) 



Carex scaposa; "glaberrima, fnliis radicalibtlt longe petiolatis lanoeolatis acumioatil 

 plains lutusimu 1— 1 \ poll, latis, eulmo florigero sabapb jllo elongate*, peduncalis 



axillaribus remotis apice composite eorjmbiferis, bracteis angnatis erectis, 

 spicis subsessilibus densis multifloris apice maaculu. utriculis ovoideis trigonti 

 glabrisin rostrum cylindrical!! subito aagastatis, stylo trifido." — C. B. Clarke. 



The singular plant here figured is of more botanical 

 tli an horticultural interest, though a well-grown pot of it 

 may well compare with any of the Gyperi now so com- 

 monly grown for decorative purposes. Mr. C. B. Clarke, 

 who is now engaged upon the family of Cyperacem, has 

 kindly named and given a diagnosis of it for this Magazine. 

 He informs me that it belongs to a subsection " Scaposa? " 

 of the huge genus Car ex (which numbers upwards of 500 

 species), and of which the 0. pandanophylla, Kurz, a 

 Burmese plant, was the first-known Indian representative. 

 There are, however, several American allies of the scapose 

 section, of which one has been long cultivated in gardens; 

 namely, the curious G. Fraseri, Andr. (Bot. Mag. t. 1391), 

 of the Southern United States. C. Fraseri, however, differs 

 notably from the Indian " Scaposce " in the characters of 

 the spike, which is simple. Unlike as C. scaposa and 

 pandanophylla are in habit to the ordinary Indian types of 

 Car ex, Mr. Clarke informs me that in India, as in America, 

 there is a gradual transition from these to the leafy 

 culmed species, so that it is impossible to separate them 

 definitely. 



C. scaposa is a native of the Lo-fau-shan Mountains on 

 the coast of China, opposite to the Island of Hong Kong, 

 where it was discovered growing at an elevation of 32oO 

 feet by Mr. Chas. Ford, of the Hong Kong Botanical 



june 1st, 1887. 



