406 CYPERACE& [KOBRESIA. 



10. KOBRESIA, Willd. 



Small perennial sedges. Leaves rigid, keeled. Spikelets crowded in a 

 terminal compressed ovoid spike, few-flowered, some male, others male 

 (upper) and female. Glumes 2-3, imbricate all round the axis, lowest 

 flowerless. Bristles 0. MALE fl. Stamens 3. FEMALE fl. at the base of a 

 convolute bract. Ovary 3-gonous ; style-base simple, stigmas 3. Fruit 

 3-gonous. DISTRIB. Arctic and Alpine Europe, N. Asia, Himalaya ; 

 species 2-3. ETYM. De Kobres, a German patron of botany. 



1. K. carici'na, Willd. ; lower spikelets with one female flower. 

 Upland moors, York, Durham, and Perth ; ascending to about 2,500 ft. in the 

 latter; fl. Aug. Rootstock short. Stems 4-9 in., densely tufted, rigid, 

 terete, leafy at the base only. Leaven 2-5 in. , wiry, recurved, grooved, 

 margins convolute. Spike ^-1 in., narrow. Spikelets subdistichous, sessile, 

 cylindric ; bracts small, lowest with a rigid serrulate point. Glumes in., 

 rigid, ovate-oblong, obtuse, pale brown, basal always empty, second of the 

 lower spikelets female, the third male ; in the upper spikelets both flowers 

 are male. Fruit as long as the glumes, linear, beaked, pale. DISTRIB. 

 Arctic and Alpine Europe, Greenland, Rocky Mts. 



11. CA'REX, L. SEDGE. 



Perennial grasslike herbs. Stems usually leafy. Spikelets 1-2-sexual, 

 very rarely dioecious, terete, solitary or in heads spikes racemes or 

 panicles, all 2-sexual or lower female with often a few male fl. at the 

 base or top, and upper male with often a few female at the top or base. 

 Glumes imbricate all round the rachis, persistent or deciduous. MALE 

 fl. Stamens 2-3, without perianth or bristles. FEMALE fl. a compressed 

 or 3-quetrous ovary, included in an urceolate 2-toothed sac, from which 

 the 2-3 stigmas project. Fruit minute, coriaceous, compressed or 3- 

 gonous, included in the sac (perigynium). DISTRIB. All climates, rare 

 in trop., abundant in Arctic and cold; species about 1,000. ETYM. Kflpu, 

 from the cutting foliage. Sometimes a slender rudimentary axis (racheola) 

 occurs in the perigynium, at the base of the ovary. 



SECTION 1. Spikelet solitary, terminal. 



1. C. pauciflo'ra, Light.; leaves involute, spikelet ebracteate, glumes 

 4-6, upper male, perigynia reflexed, stigmas 3. 



Moorland bogs from York and Dumfries to Sutherland ; ascending to 2,700 ft. 

 in the Highlands; absent from Ireland; fl. June-July.- RooMock slender, 

 creeping, stoloniferous. Stems 3-12 in., very slender, 3-gonous, smooth. 

 Leaves setaceous. Spikelets in. Glumes |-> in., rather distant, oblong- 

 lanceolate, acute, pale, shorter than the fusiform pale beaked perigynia. 

 Fruit 3-quetrous, pale. DISTRIB. Europe, chiefly Alpine and Arctic, N. 

 America. 



2. C. pulica'ris, L. ; leaves involute, spikelet ebracteate, glumes 6-12 

 upper male, perigynia reflexed, stigmas 2. 



Bogs, ascending to 2,700 ft. in the Highlands ; fl. May-June. Rootstock 

 tuftod ; stolons or short. Stems 3-8 in., smooth, rather rigid, terete, 

 grooved. Leaves setaceous, often exceeding the stem. Spikelets ^1 in. 

 Glumes & in., lower sometimes remote, ovate-oblong, subacute, about as 



