256 FIELD AND WOODLAND PLANTS 



spikelets below ; or they are arranged in a compound spike or 

 panicle. The flowers are all imperfect, without perianth ; and the 

 male and female flowers are either in separate spikelets or in different 

 parts of the same one. The glumes overlap all round the axis of 

 the spikelet ; there are generally three stamens ; and the ovary 

 is enclosed in a httle vase-shaped covering with a little hole at the 

 top through which the two or three stigmas protrude. 



We give illustrations of two of the commonest species ; the 

 Common Sedge {Car ex vulgaris), which flowers from June to August ; 

 and the Marsh Sedge [C. paludosa), that flowers in May and June. 

 The former grows to a height varying from six inches to two feet ; 

 and the latter to from two to three feet. 



