394 THE STORY OF PLANT LIFE 



Pond Sedge {Carex riparia). 



The name Carex was applied by Virgil. Its 

 etymology is uncertain. The second Latin name 

 denotes that the plant grows at the margin, or on the 

 banks, of ponds, etc. 



This Sedge is common in all lowland parts of the 

 British Isles up to Banff wherever there is aquatic 

 vegetation, but it is local in Ireland. It occurs in 

 the Channel Islands. 



River banks, ditches, wet places, constitute the 

 habitat of this plant, which often helps to form a 

 transition from aquatic vegetation to marsh-formation, 

 or the vegetation of wet swamps in general. It is 

 found in the fresh-water aquatic formation in waters 

 relatively rich in mineral salts, in nearly stagnant 

 waters, and in slowly-flowing waters in the reed-swamp 

 association, and in the fen-formation in swamp carr. 



Sedge-like in habit the rootstock of this plant is 

 creeping and tufted. The stems are tall, stout, three- 

 angled, rough at the angles. The leaves are very 

 broad, flat, bluish-green, keeled, the edges of the 

 sheaths filamentous. There is a broad bract which 

 overtops the stem. 



The flowers are in very large spikelets. There are 

 one or more terminal spikelets, entirely or mostly 

 male, the others female, in the axils. The male 

 spikelets are three to six, stout, crowded, dark brown, 

 acute, with a few female flowers at the base. The 

 anthers have a longer point than in C. acutiformis. 



