194 Field, Forest, and Wayside Flowers 



Most of our native sedges belong to one great 

 group, the genus Carex. Its various members 

 generally grow in moist places and blossom in the 

 spring, so that their seeds are set, and often 

 ripened, too, by midsummer. 



"A carex" can be recognized afield by the tyro, 

 but the correct identification of the particular carex 

 in question is quite another matter. For the species 

 are so difficult to distinguish one from another, vary 

 so perplexingly, and blend into one another so 

 confusingly, that they can confound the experienced 

 naturalist. In most carices the stamens and pistils 

 are borne in separate flowers, which grow upon the 

 same plant. 



In one large section of them the two kinds of 

 flowers grow on the same spike, which is staminate 

 at its apex, and pistillate below, or, as Tweedle- 

 dee was wont to remark, li contrariwise. " 



In another large section the staminate flowers 

 grow in a spike by themselves, at the tip-top of 

 the sedge, while the pistillate blossoms, in modest 

 groups, occupy lower places (Fig. 53). 



Each flower of either sex is sheltered and al- 

 most concealed by a green scale. The staminate 

 flowers have no calyces nor corollas at all, not 

 even reminiscent ones of saw-blades or bristles. 



