Dr. GoopENovucn's Ob/fervations, &c. 127 
In the beginning of the 18th century, Ruppius, Monti, Fuffieu, and 
Michelius, divided the Carices of Linnæus into two families. Miche- 
lus, who deferves moft confideration, divides them into Cyperoides 
and Carex. Under the former divifion he claffes the Linnean fpe- 
cies which have /picas exu diffinétas, and under the latter thofe 
which have /picas androgynas: but, in doing this, he ranks Carex 
dioica under the former. I {hall have occafion prefently to fpeak of 
this divifion more particularly. * 
Tournefort, intent upon the corolla, gave a decifive character 
taken from that interefting feature. He fpeaks however only of 
twenty-three fpecies, of which almoft all are of the order Sexu dif- 
tine. But even in this arrangement he offends againft his own 
generic charaéter: for he defcribes his genus (which he ftyles Cy- 
peroides) as having its terminal fpike barren, and the inferior ones 
fertile; a defcription by no means according with the androgynous 
Ípecies. - | | buie 
X Linneus thought it needlefs to extend his generic character to 
any farther degree of minutenefs than what the nature of the 
flowers called for. The fituation of the flowers was difregarded by 
him: it was fufficient for his purpofe that the prefence of male 
and female flowers determined their place in the clafs Monecia of 
his fyftem, and the parts of fructification determined the genus 
Carex. : | 
Whether Linnæuss generic character be fufficiently exact, and 
whether, from the multitude of modern difcoveries, it may not be 
advifable to reftore the old divifion into two families, may poflibly 
admit of fome doubt. Linnæus defcribes the N ectarium (by which 
he means the capfule or tunica enveloping the feed, for he alludes 
indifferently to all thefe three terms) as flatum tridentatum, and 
the ftigma astrifid. Suppofing /riemiatum to be an error of the 
prefs for Aidentatum, ftill even then a large portion of the family wilk 
| not 
