HUMMOCK SEDGE 57 



There are about two tlovvers, with one fertile above. There are 2 

 stamens, with anthers comiiio- to a point. The style is swollen at the 

 base, and falls eventually. There are 2-3 stigmas. 



The fruit is a nut, which is 3-sided and does not open, when ripe 

 falling" into the water or upon the ground quite close to the plant. 



This handsome sedge is a peat-lover, lingering only in peat soil 

 at Wicken fen. 



Reed Tussock {Lce/ia ca'uosa), a moth, is found upon Prickly Rush. 



Cladiuiii, P. I5r., is from the Greek dados, a twig, and iiiarisais is 

 Latin for a kind of rush. 



The plant is also called Shere- or Shear-grass, Lesch, Sedge, and 

 Twig Rush. Turner says as to the name Shear-grass: " The edges of 

 thys herbe are so sharpe that they will cut a mannis hande and have 

 a certaine roughness which maketh them to cut the sower, of which 

 propertye the Northern men call it Sheregres. It hath a long stalke 

 and thre .square, and in the top of that is a sort of little knoppes instede 

 of sedes and floures much like unto oure gardine gallingal. The people 

 of the F"enne countreys use it in for fother and do heate ovens with it." 

 It was used for lighting fires at Cambridge. In the East it was said to 

 have formed the Crown of Thorns. 



EssENTi.\L Spi-:cific Ch..\ractkrs: — 



324. Cladium Mariscus, Br. — Stem half round, smooth, leaves long, 

 rigid, serrate, triquetrous above, flowers in a panicle of 1-3 spikelets. 



Hummock Sedge (Care.x paniculata, L.) 



The Hummock Sedge is found in the North Temperate Zone 

 .south of Sweden to the Canaries, and in W. Siberia. It is not found 

 in any early plant beds. In Great Britain it is absent in the Peninsula 

 province from N. Devon, but occurs throughout the Channel and 

 Thames provinces; not in Hunts in Anglia; is general in the Severn 

 district; in S. Wales it does not grow in Radnor; in N. Wales only in 

 Carnarvon, Denbigh, Anglesea; in the Trent province; in the Mersey 

 it does not grow in Mid Lanes, but is general throughout the Humber 

 and Tyne provinces; Lakes province in Cumberland; in W. Lowlands 

 it does not grow in Renfrew; E. Lowlands, not in Peebles, Selkirk, 

 Ro.xburgh; not in Mid or S. Perth in E. Highlands; in W. High- 

 lands not in Mid or N. Ebudes; in N. Highlands not in E. Ross, 

 E. .Sutherland, but occlus in the Hebrides and Orkneys, and also in 

 Ireland and the Channel Islands. 



The Hummock Sedge is a paludal type of sedge, growing in large 



