62 Transactions. 



THE CAR ICES OF THE STEWARTRY. 

 By James M'Andbew, 



Read February 6th, 1880. 



Carices or Sedges belong to the class of Monocotyledons, division 

 Glumacece, and order Gyperacem, and tribe Caricineoi. 



As sedges greatly resemble grasses, a little practice and observa- 

 tion is reqiih'ed to distinguish them. Sedges differ from grasses 

 in the following particulars : — In sedges the leaves are more 

 commonly glaucous ; the stem is angular instead of round, solid 

 or full of pith, and not hollow, and not jointed where a leaf arises, 

 as in grasses ; and where sedges have sheaths to their leaves, these 

 sheaths ai-e never split. These prominent distinctions between 

 sedges and grasses will enable an amateur to know a sedge from 

 a grass almost without examining the inflorescence. Grasses 

 afford nutriment to cattle, because they contain starch and sugar ; 

 sedges are very deficient in these substances ; and though Carex 

 Ampullacea and Carex Vesicaria when cut young and tender are 

 used as fodder in this part of Scotland, under the name of " stax"- 

 grass," from the prickly leaves, yet they cannot give much 

 nourishment. Growing almost everywhere, sedges are looked 

 upon as worse than useless, and take up ground which, if drained 

 and cultivated, would produce excellent crops. Some foreign 

 Carices are useful, either for their medicinal or esculent roots. 

 The earliest kind of writing paper was made from the Papyrus, a 

 Carex growing on the banks of the Nile in Egypt. In our own 

 country some are used as rushes for chair bottoms ; and along the 

 sandy shores of our coasts and the embankments of canals the 

 roots of such species as Carex Arenai'ia bind the sands and prevent 

 their shifting. Though not a very usefid class of plants, they are 

 extensive, and botanically very interesting. Owing, however, to 

 the minuteness of their inflorescence and the great similarity 

 existing between some of the species, they are very difficult of 

 determination. A good lens is absolutely necessary in their 

 examination. In their determination every part of the plant 

 must be taken into account and examined — the roots, stems, 

 leaves, sheathes or none, flowers, barren and fertile spikes, bracts, 

 glumes, perigynium or sac containing the seed or fruit, the num- 



