442 CYPERACEi^. 



The morphology of this utricle and of the bract outside it has been 

 much debated, but since the former has two nerves it has been agreed 

 generally that it is formed by the union of two glumes, and that the bract is 

 therefore not a glume but the bract of a spikelet which is reduced to only 

 one flower. The ultimate unit, what one might call the 'flower' is there- 

 fore in the case of the female unit, a spikelet. These spikelets are usually 

 borne in spikes, which again may be in simple spikes or in panicles. The 

 male 'flower' is regarded by some as a flower quite like that of other 

 Cyperacese but by others as a reduced spikelet like the female, but still more 

 reduced for there is no utricle, no trace therefore of the glumes. What 

 appears therefore to be spikelet is on this view really a spike of one-flowered 

 spikelets, and what appear to be the glumes of the spikelet are in reality the 

 bracts subtending the spikelets on the spike. 



This is the view taken in Engler and Prantl's P flanzenfamilien,, and in 

 the F.B.I, by C.B.Clarke. \vL\.h.c Gepiera Plantarum the more general 

 view was adopted that the male unit is a flower, and therefore the spike 

 really a spikelet as it looks to be ; but the female unit a reduced spikelet as 

 now supposed and the apparent spikelet a spike. 



Since for the purposes of a FLORA it is of more importance 

 that there should be no mistake on the part of the reader as to 

 what part is being described, than that the correct morphology 

 of the part be indicated, I shall in the following call the ultimate 

 units, "flowers" and drop the word spikelet. My "flowers" 

 then are, in the case of the female, the utricle and its contents 

 with the bract outside, and in the case of the male the stamens 

 and their bract. 



{Stem leafy at the flowering part b 

 Spikes dense, interrupted, no leaves near them .... 

 C. muricata. 

 r Leaves % inch wide or less : spike % inch, dense ; bracts 



ovate C. nubigena. 



, 1 Leaves J^ inch wide : spike slender i to 2 inches ; bracts 



> narrow C. longipes. 



Leaves '% inch wide : spikes several, dense ; bracts lan- 

 ceolate, awned ....... C lindleyana. 



Carex nubigena D. Don; F.B.L vi 702, XXVIII 6; 

 Spiky Carex. A rush-like plant with narrow grass-like 

 leaves, and slender green stems ending in one or two 

 slender pointed leaves and an irregular compact or inter- 

 rupted spike of ' flowers,' which when young shows 

 anthers at the top, but later on appears only as a number 

 of pointed, divergent utricles. 



Stems tufted, leafy only at the base and the tip, and 

 clothed below with short colourless leaves. Leaf-sheath 



