TfiE SEDGES. 



shady or arid, loamy or rocky, 

 in sands or peat-bogs — any- 

 where, and the search need 

 not be long. They are read- 

 ily known from other Sedges 

 by having their flowers all 

 imperfect, either $ or 5 , and 

 the achenium inclosed in a 

 bottle-shaped sack. 



Analysis. — 1. Generic 

 Cha-Racters. — Having in 

 hand a Carex, or any num- 

 ber of them, fresh or dried, 

 their features may be traced 

 as follows : A triangular 

 culm, or a cluster of culms, 

 beset with grass-like leaves, 

 bears one or several, often 

 many, greenish spikes. The 

 spikes are terete, composed of 

 glumes (or scales) spirally 

 imbricated, and bearing in 

 the axil of each glume (ex- 

 cept the lower) a single 

 flower. 



The J^ towers are all im- 

 perfect, either staminate ( 6 ) 

 or pistillate (?), and vari- 

 ously disposed. In some 

 species, the 5 and $ together 

 occupy the same spike or 

 spikes {androgynous) ; in 

 other species they occupy separate spikes on the same plant 



Fig. LXXI.— Carex bull^ta : 2, a ster- 

 ile flower ; 3, a fertile flower dissected, 

 showing the glume, ovary and stigmas ; 

 4, section showing the solid culm and 

 equitant vernation. 



