252 



CAR 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL; 



CAR 



quen tly three-cornered, is not hollow, but filled with a spongy 

 substance; the difference in the fructification is very con- 

 siderable, as will appear from a comparison of the generic 

 character. Most of the species grow in wet swampy grounds, 

 in bogs, fens, marshes, or by the sides of ditches and rivers, 

 or in moist woods ; some few, however, affect hilly pastures 

 and heaths : they are perennial, and flower in May and June, 

 or from April to July and August. Linneus has divided this 

 genus into five sections, the two first comprising the species 

 with androgynous spikes ; and the three last, those which have 

 the male or barren, and the female or fertile spikes distinct. 

 The Carices or Sedges are classed rather among the noxious 

 plants, than with such as are useful ; because they yield a very 

 coarse grass and fodder, to the exclusion of real grass, and 

 other profitable plants, which they subdue by their strong 

 creeping roots : but jt should be considered that they grow 

 ehiefly on poor spongy land, on bogs, to which they give 

 stability, or on the banks of streams, which they enable to 

 resist the current; that they maybe destroyed by drainingand 

 manuring ; and hence, after all, are of considerable use : beside 

 their common use for coarse fodder, they are employed for 

 covering hovels and stacks, for lighting fires and heating ovens 

 for tying the young hop- plant to the poles ; the Italians use 

 them to cover wine-flasks, for putting between the staves of 

 casks to make them tight, and for chair bottoms. The Lap- 

 lander combs and dresses some species of Sedge as we do 

 Hax, and in winter stuffs his shoes and gloves with it, as a 

 defence against the extreme rigour of his climate. They can- 

 not, upon the whole, be considered as useful plants, except 

 in such situations as will not produce better fodder and her- 

 bage ; or where they contribute to fill up marshes, and lay a 

 foundation for their becoming hereafter dry land and useful 

 meadows : wherever a meadow is capable of being drained, 

 the Sedge may be destroyed, wet being necessary to the exist- 

 ence of those sorts which overrun pasture grounds. They are 

 never cultivated, except in botanic gardens, for the determi- 

 nation of the species, and are then propagated by the roots ; 

 some few of them require a dry soil, and others a shady situ- 

 ation ; but the greater part must be placed with water and bog 

 plants, either by the side of ponds, or in pots or tubs filled 

 with marsh or bog earth, and standing in water ; and yet with 

 all these advantages, some of them will scarcely flower in a 



garden. The species are, 



* With one simple Spike. 



\. Carex Dioica ; Small Sedge. Spike simple, dioecous ; 

 margins of the capsules serrulate. Culm slender, upright, 

 smooth, from four to six or even ten inches high, with three 

 sharpish angles. Found on boggy grounds.flowering in June. 



2. Carex Capitata ; Round-headed Sedge. Spike simple, 

 androgynous, ovate ; upper part male ; capsules imbricate- 

 expanding, with entire margins : very similar to the preced- 

 ing species. 



3. Carex Pulicaris; Flea Sedge, or Flea Grass. Spike sim- 

 ple, androgynous; upper part male; capsules divaricated, 

 bent back, acuminated at both ends. Root not creeping, but 

 fibrous. Frequent in moorish and boggy places. 



4. Carex Squarrosa. Spike simple, androgynous ; lower 

 part male ; capsules imbricated, horizontal. Spike oblong, 

 thick, consisting of horizontal imbricate capsules, with a 

 linear tip as long as the capsule itself; the bottom of the 

 spike is covered with dry barren chaffs. This is one of the 

 largest species, and is a native of Canada. 



5. Carex Uncinata. Spike simple, androgynous, linear; 

 upper part male; awns of the females uncinated ; males awn- 

 less. Fertile flowers constituting two-thirds of the spike,bc!ow 

 the barren ones ; small spicules sometimes hang down by the 



side, probably barren. It is the handsomest of the genus, 

 and a native of New Zealand. 



6. Carex Cyperoides. Head terminal, roundish ; flowers 

 very simple, subulated ; involucre long. Culms a foot high 

 three-cornered ; head consisting of several glomerules in a 

 small umbel ; the outer glumes of each barren, the inner fer- 

 tile ; filamenta white ; pistil longer than the nectary, with 

 a bifid style. Native of Siberia and Bohemia. 

 **Spikes androgynous. 



7- Carex Baldensis. Spikes tern, heaped, sessile, ovate, 

 three-cornered, androgynous ; involucre two-leaved. Na- 

 tive of Monte Baldo. 



8. Carex Arenaria ; Sand or Sea Sedge. Spike leafy, ob- 

 long, sharpish; spikelets several, the terminating ones male; 

 the lower ones female ; culm incurved. Roots creeping hori- 

 zontally about four inches under ground, in a moveable 

 sand upon the sea-shores ; as at Yarmouth, Lowestoff, and 

 in Scotland, also in the interior of Germany : it rarely flowers 

 in a garden. 



9. Carex Uliginosa. Spike compound ; spikelets andro- 

 gynous ; the lower ones more remote, furnished with a longer 

 leaflet ; culm round. Found upon turf-moors in Sweden. 



10. Carex Leporina. Spike compound ; spikelets ovate, 

 sessile, approximate, alternate, androgynous, naked. Native 

 of the highest Alps. 



11. Carex Vulpina ; Great Sedge. Spike superdecom- 

 pound, contracted, branched, blunt ; spikelets male at top; 

 capsules diverging; angles of the culm very sharp ; culm 

 thick, firm. It flowers in May, and is common on the banks 

 of rivers and ditches, and in marshes. 



12. Carex Brizoides ; Rough Sedge. Spike compound, 

 distich, naked ; spikelets androgynous, oblong, contiguous; 

 culm naked. Stem slender, three-cornered, eighteen inches 

 high ; leaves scarcely a line wide. 



13. Carex Muricata ; Spiked Sedge. Spike oblong, super- 

 decompound; spikelets distinct; capsules diverging, with aclo- 

 ven mouth; root fibrous ; leaves longer than the culm. Found 

 in moist woods and meadows ; flowering in May and June. 



14. Carex Loliacea. Spikelets subovate, sessile, remote, 

 androgynous ; capsules ovate, roundish, awnless, divaricate. 

 Root creeping; leaves grassy, tender, smooth and even ; culm 

 smooth and even, the upper part naked ; spikelets four or 

 eight, small, scattered at the top of the culm, whitish. 

 Native of Sweden and Saxony. 



15. Carex Remota ; Remote Sedge. Spikelets axillary, 

 solitary, subsessile, remote ; leaflets very long ; capsule un- 

 divided at the tip. A very elegant plant , stems several, one 

 to two feet high, slender, weak, three-cornered, above the 

 lowest floral leaf rough, below smooth. This is found in 

 moist woods, and by the sides of ditches ; flowering in May 

 and June, 



' 16. Carex Elongata. Spikelets oblong, sessile, remote, 

 androgynous ; capsules ovate, acute. Culms two feet high 

 rough, three-cornered, almost naked ; glumes brown, sharp. 



17. Carex Canescens; Gray Sedge. Spikelets roundish, 

 remote, sessile, obtuse, androgynous; capsules ovate, blunt- 

 ish. Native of Lapland, Upland, &c. . 



18. Carex Paniculata ; Panichd Sedge. Spike super- 

 decompound, panicled-branched, acute; branches alternate, 

 somewhat remote ; capsules spreading ; culm three sided. 

 Stems numerous, from one to three and sometimes four feet 

 high, naked in the upper part, three-cornered, with the angles 

 minutely toothed ; the lax branchy disposition of the spike 

 sufficiently discriminates this species from the rest. It is a 

 native of bogs and marshes, flowering in June, and is admira- 

 bly well qualified for planting in loose boggy ground; its 



