CYPERACEAE. 



55 



1. Carex albolutescens Schwein. 

 Greenish- WHITE Sedge. (Fig. 84.) Culms 

 l°-2° tall, stout. Leaves l"-2" wide, 

 shorter than the culm; bracts filiform or 

 wanting; spikes 3-8, oblong, usually 

 narrowed at both ends, silvery green 

 when young, becoming brownish, 4"-6" 

 long, clustered; perigynia broadly ovate, 

 not twice as long as wide, broadly winged, 

 strongly nerved on both faces, about 2" 

 long, the roughish be'ak about one third 

 as long as the body; scales lanceolate, 

 acuminate; achene nearly or quite sessile. 



Marshes and grassy fields. Native. 

 Eastern United States. Flowers in spring. 



2. Carex bermudiana Hemsley. 



Bermuda Sedge. (Fig. 85.) Eoot- 

 stock stout, short ; culms rather stout, 

 smooth, sharply 3-angled, nearly erect, 

 li°-2i° tall. Leaves glabrous, rough- 

 ish-margined, about 2" wide, the 

 lower often as long as the culm; 

 spikes 5-8, linear, l'-2' long, densely 

 many-flowered, the upper 1-4 stami- 

 nate, at least at the summit, the 

 lower 2-4 mostly all pistillate, the 

 lowest filiform-stalked, the others ses- 

 sile or nearly so; scales ovate, green- 

 ish-white, aristate, glabrous, longer 

 than the perigynia or the upper about 

 equalling them; perigynia glabrous, 

 oblong, strongly ri])bed, the short 

 beak 2-cleft; styles 3; achene short- 

 stalked. 



Wooded marshy situations and 

 shaded rocky places. Very rare, and 

 presumably on the verge of extinction. 

 Endemic. Flowers in spring. 

 First collected by J Dickinson about ICno, the specimen preserved in the 

 Sloane Herbarium at the British Museum of Natural History and not again 

 collected by botanists until found by us in the autumn of 1005. Its nearest relative 

 is Carex Waltcriana Bailey of the southeastern United States, and the species mny 

 have sprung from seeds of that species transported to Bermuda by winds or liirds. 

 Its affinity with Carex praealtn Boott. of St. Helena, suggested by Henislev, is much 

 more remote; it was illustrated by Mr. Hemsley in ".Journal of Botany " 21 : p/. 2.^9, 

 fig. 2, and his original description and discussion of the plant may be found on p. 260 

 of the same volume. 



Order 5. ARECALES. 



Shrubs or trees, with erect or horizontal stems (caudices), growing by 

 a single terminal bud. Leaves at the end of the stem, the petioles with 

 imbricated bases: blades plaited in the bud, fan-shaped or pinnate. 

 Flowers perfect or polygamous, in more or less compound axillary pan- 

 icles. Perianth in 2 series of parts, persistent. Calyx of 3 united or 



