SEDGE TRIBE 37 
one bearing stamens, the lower a pistil, and included within a sheathing 
scale. Named after De Kobres, of Augsberg, a “patron” of botany. 
11. Sepcr (Cérex).—Glumes collected into imbricated spikes ; fertile 
flower of 1 pistil with 2—3 stigmas, invested by a pitcher-shaped sac, which 
is persistent and becomes the outer part of the fruit, enclosing the nut ; barren 
flower of 3 stamens, corolla wanting. Name from the Greek keiro, to cut, 
from the sharpness of its leaves. 
1. GALINGALE (Cypérus). 
1. Sweet or English Galingale (C. longus).—Spikelets narrow, 
pointed, in erect twice-compound umbels; general bracts very long, leafy ; 
partial, short ; stem triangular ; rootstock creeping. A handsome but very 
rare plant, found only in a few marshes in the south and west of England, 
and in the Channel Islands. The umbel is leafy and composed of unequal 
rays; the glumes are of a reddish-brown hue, with green keels and whitish 
margins ; the stem is from 2—3 feet high, and is sheathed at the base with 
several long leaves, after the habit of the larger sedges. The root is succu- 
lent, and filled with a nutritive and agreeable mucilage, to which a highly 
aromatic bitter principle is added, -having tonic and stomachic properties. It 
flowers in July and August. Its long curved bracts and gracefully mounted 
numerous heads give it a very striking appearance. 
2. Brown Cypérus (C. fuscus).—Spikelets narrow, pointed, collected 
into small roundish terminal heads; glumes spreading; bracts 3, unequal. 
A small inconspicuous annual plant, only a few inches long, with fibrous 
roots and numerous trailing stems, first discovered in a meadow near Little 
Chelsea, where it is believed to have been naturalized, and since found on 
Shalford Common, near Godalming, Surrey. It flowers in August and 
September. The genus Cypérus, which, from the useful properties of many 
of the plants that it contains, has been with propriety selected to give a 
name to the order CyPERACE#, comprises little short of 700 species, nearly 
all of which inhabit the warmer regions of the globe, increasing in numbers 
and luxuriance as we approach the Line. The genus Carex, on the contrary, 
is more abundant in high latitudes, where, according to Humboldt, it equals 
the grasses, and towards the Tropics dwindles away and almost disappears. 
Of Cypérus, two species only are found in England; in Scotland none. The 
genus Carex contains upwards of sixty British species. 
2. BoG-RUSH (Schenus). 
Black Bog-rush (S. négricans).—The only British species. A rush-like 
plant, from eight to twelve inches high, composed of numerous erect, rigid, 
nearly round stems, some of which are barren, while others terminate in an 
abrupt head of dark red-brown, almost black glumes, of which the outer one 
assumes the form of a bract and overtops the rest. The stems are clasped at 
their base by several blackish sheaths, terminating in short rigid leaves. The 
short rootstock is branched, and bears many long tough fibres, which extend 
to a considerable distance in the turfy bogs where the plant grows. The 
flowers, which are somewhat conspicuous from their large yellow anthers, 
