193 



(©riginal SHrticIc^, 



CAREX ORNITHOPODA, JFilld., AS A BRITISH PLANT. 



By Henry Teimen, M.B., F.L.S. 



(Tab. 164.) 



The discovery of this Sedge as a native of England was made in 

 May, 1874, by Messrs. John Whitehead and H. IsTewton, as briefly 

 recorded in this Journal last year (p. 371). The specimens then 

 sent being in too young a state for satisfactory description, I post- 

 poned giving a figure of the plant until another season. To Mr. 

 Whitehead's kindness the readers of this Journal are indebted for 

 a good series of plants collected this year, from which the accom- 

 panying plate and description have been made. The specimens were 

 gathered on May 22nd, 1875, on dry grassy banks, and on the 

 ledges of dry and exposed limestone rocks in Miller's Dale, Derby- 

 shire, the only place in this country where the species has as yet been 

 observed.* 



C. ornithopoda was first clearly separated from its allies by Will- 

 denow in 1804, having been previously confounded by AUioni, Host, 

 Schkuhr, and others with C. pedata, L. It was, however, known to 

 the ante-Linnean writers, and is figured by Micheli in his ** jN'ova 

 Genera " (1728), where the flowering spikes are delineated in tab. 32, 

 fig. 14. It is recognised as a species distinct from C. digitata by 

 nearly all botanists who have since treated of the European flora, the 

 principal exceptions being Wahlenberg and Sprengel among the older 

 writers, and Meyer among recent ones. Crepin, after a careful com- 

 parison, expresses some doubts on the point, but is content to pro- 

 visionally consider it as distinct.f The diff'erences are indeed striking, 

 and such as to make recognition an easy matter ; it must, however, 

 be allowed that the botanical characters between it and C. digitata 

 are more comparative than absolute ones. 



Description. — The following description is made entirely from the 

 Derbyshire plant. Rhizome short, oblique, usually dividing into two 

 or more branches, each terminating in an erect leafy shoot, giving 

 ofi" very numerous dark-brown roots, and closely covered at its upper part 

 with the persistent pale-brown frayed-out sheaths of the old leaves 

 which also pass up on to the base of the leafy shoots. Leaves 2-4 in. 

 long, narrow, nearly flat, bluntish, the blade bright clear green, 

 rather strongly ribbed beneath, rough on the edges, with very fine 



* Since the above was written Mr. Rogers has found C. ornithopoda in 

 another dale a few miles from Miller's Dale, 

 t See his *' Notes," fasc. v., pp. 136—147. 

 N.s. VOL. 4. [July, 1875.] o 



