The Book of Grasses 



Q 



P^risytiloL 



broken horizontal ridges 

 and well repay a dose exam- 

 ination with the microscope. 



seed (ju'ith 

 3 sriamw 



5ee<r^cth 

 J. Stigmas 



scales 



SEDGES. (Cdrex) 



Sedges of this widely distributed 

 genus grow in abundance in wet 

 meadows, by brooksides, and in all 

 swampy places. In a rich locality 

 more than fifty species may be 

 gathered in the course of a sum- 

 mer, and to the student these 

 plants are more perplexing than 

 are the grasses, since between 

 many of the sedges the difference 

 is too slight to be obvious save to 

 patient study aided by good lenses. 



"Shear-grass" is an old English 

 name for the sedges, and one that 

 is most appropriate, since the leaves 

 and stems of many species are sharp- 

 edged and can cut sorely if carelessly 

 handled. 



The plants of this genus are 

 perennials, growing in tufts, and 

 sending up many long-leaved, sterile 

 shoots which, like the flower-bearing 

 stems, are three-angled at the base, ' 

 The flowers are borne in spikes in 

 which the staminate and pistillate 

 flowers are variously arranged : some 

 sedges show spikes composed partly 

 of fertile and partly of staminate 

 blossoms, while in other sedges 

 whole spikes are of one form of 

 flower. The difference between the 

 two forms is especially noticeable 

 The staminate 



Showing dif- 

 ferent forms, .1 J 



scales, seeds, as the seeds ripen. 



and perigynia 



B 



in sedges be- spike is narrow and slender, but the pistillate spike 



longing to the 

 genus Carex 



increases in thickness with the ripening seed. 

 304 



When 



