MONOECIA— TKIANDRIA. Carex. 99 



late, of numerous, rusty, blunt scales, usually solitary, rarely 

 accompanied by another much smaller ; and sometimes there are 

 a few barren Jlorets at the summit of a fertile catkin, especially 

 when the uppermost of the latter are aggregate, and shortened. 

 Stavi. 3. Stigin. 3. Fruit green, ovate, triangular, ribbed, 

 smooth, with a deeply-cloven beak, whose orifice has narrow 

 membranous edges. Seed obovate, with 3 angles. 

 This Carex has long puzzled the Swedish as well as Swiss bota- 

 nists. It is mentioned by Wahlenberg, Stockh. Trans, for 1803, 

 157, (under the name 1 have adopted from Dr. Swartz,) as the 

 same with my binervis, a very different plant. It is C. Mielicho- 



feri of Mr. D. Don in Hooker's Ft. Scot., and I have Swiss spe- 

 cimens confirming the above references to Haller. The plate 

 of Fl. Dan. t. 1049, having a pointed st-a/e accompanying the 



fruit, formerly misled me to believe that plate might represent 

 C. distans ; but it certainly belongs to our present plant, as Mn 

 Davall long ago suggested. 



29. Q. ph(jcostach}/a. Short-brown-spiked Carex. 



Sheaths shorter than the flower-stalks. Fertile catkins 

 two, distant, erect, ovate. Fruit ovate, triangular, 

 smooth, with a cloven beak. Scales of the barren catkin 

 pointed ; of the fertile ones obtuse. 



C. salina. Don H. Br. 216. 



On the Highland rocks of Scotland, 



Upon rocks on the high mountains of Cairn Gorm, Inverness-shirej 

 also on the Clova mountains } and on Ben Macdowie, near the 

 head of the river Dee. Mr. G. Don. 



Perennial. June. 



Roots creeping extensively, with long, smooth, pale, branched 

 fibres. Stem solitary, 5 or 6 inches high, erect, somewhat tri- 

 angular, furrowed, smooth j leafy at the base. Leaves upright, 

 or a little spreading, flat, taper-pointed, smooth, about half the 

 height of the stem. Bracteas similar, but smaller, with con- 

 siderable, rather swelling, sheaths. Flower-stalks triangular, 

 smooth, longer than the sheaths, though shorter than the brac- 

 teas. Fertile catkins distant, nearly half an inch long, ovate, 

 rather dense, with broad, bluntish, pointless, dark- brown scaZesj 

 barren one solitary, ovate, with ovate, dark -brown, acute, often 

 considerably pointed, scales. Stam. 3. Stigm. 3. Fruit green 

 tinged with brown, ovate, orelliptical, triangular, scarcely ribbed^ 

 smooth, with a broadish brown beak, projecting beyond the 

 scale, acutely cloven, but less deeply than in the last, and des- 

 titute of the white membranous border for which that species 

 is remarkable. 



Very distinct from the preceding, though the characteristic marks 



H 2 



