MONOECIA— TRIANDRIA. Carex. 123 



sheaths, each catkin near an inch and half long, bluntish, dense, 

 but not stout J the scales lanceolate, brown with a green keel, 

 tapering into a rough point, various in length. Stam.3. Stigm. 

 3. Fruit longer than the scales, ovate, triangular, green, 

 ribbed, smooth, not tumid or inflated j tapering into a flattish, 

 smooth, deeply cloven, beak. Seed filling the cavity of the fruit, 

 stalked, triangular, short, brown. 



56. C. vesicaria. Short-spiked Bladder Carex. 



Fertile catkins cylindrical, short, abrupt, on short stalks. 

 Scales all lanceolate, acute. Sheaths none. Fruit ovate, 

 inflated, with an elongated cloven beak. 



C. vesicaria, Linn. Sp. Pl.\3SS, a and y. Willd.v.4.307. Fl. 

 Br. 1005. Engl. Bot. v.W.t. 779. Hook. Scot. 269. Don H. 

 Br. 193. Dicks. H. Sice. fasc. 14. 18. Fl. Dan. t. 647 . Leers 

 205 y. t. 16. /. 2. III. Schk. Car. 124. t. S, s./. 106. Ehrh. 

 Calam. 60. 



C. inflata, Huds. 412? Light/. 567. 



C. n. 1409. Hall. Hist. v. 2. 200. 



Cyperoides vesicarium, spicis viridantibus, vel subfuscis. Scheuchz. 

 Agr. 470. 



Gramen cvperoides majus prsecox, spicis turgidis teretibus flaves- 

 centibus. Dill, in Rati Syit. 420. Moris, v. 3. 242. sect. 8. 1. 12. 

 /.6. 



In marshes, and wet meadows. 



In Wales and the north of England. Huds. In Breadalbane and 

 other parts of Scotland. Light/. About Oxford, but rarely. Bo- 

 bart. By the water-works at Pimlico, and in other swampy 

 places about London. 



Perennial. May. 



Root creeping. Stem erect, 2 feet high, with 3 very sharp rough 

 angles. Leaves light green, erect, rather narrow, taper-point- 

 ed, rough-edged. Bracteas narrower, with long slender points, 

 rising above the stem, without any sheaths, or occasionally with 

 some very short ones. Barren catkins 2 or 3, often solitary, 

 slender, acute, near 1| inch longj their scales linear-lanceolate, 

 rusty, sharpish, but without any awn. Fertile 3 or 4, generally 

 on short, smooth, triangular stalks, the lower stalks, as usual, 

 variable ; each catkin about an inch, occasionally 2 , in length, 

 obtuse, a little drooping, becoming turgid and thick in ripening, 

 and finally pale, almost straw-coloured; scales lanceolate, acute, 

 or pointed, brown, with a green keel. Stam. 3. Stigm. 3, with 

 a style of nearly their own length. Fruit crowded, spreading, 

 longer than the scales, ovate, inflated, ribbed, yellowish and 

 shining when ripe, very smooth, terminating in a gradually ta- 

 pering beak, whose extremity is deeply cloven into 2 sharp points. 



