106 AMONG THE WILD FLOWERS. 
In many of the most striking plants of this 
genus the male flowers compose a terminal and 
erect spike or catkin, covered, when in flower, 
with abundant brown or yellow anthers, whilst 
the females are placed in several other spikes 
below ; these fertile spikes are often of beauti- 
ful cylindrical form, and sometimes gracefully 
pendulous. 
Most of the Order have neither corolla nor 
perianth, but simply a scale or glume, enclos- 
ing the stamens in the barren flowers, and the 
germens in the fertile ones. The fertile 
flowers of Carex, however, have also a bottle- 
shaped perianth completely enclosing the zzz, 
as the germen of this flower is called. This 
formation is called the /vuzt, and in describing 
the various species it is usual to specify the 
shape of this fruit, as well as of the nut separ- 
ately. Each spike, whether fertile or barren, 
has usually numerous flowers, consisting of 
scales or glumes, which are imbricate, z.¢., ar- 
ranged one over the other like tiles on a roof, 
but upward instead of downward. 
Although this description applies to all the 
Carices, yet there is so great variety in the 
general aspect of the various species that their 
