Reeds, Grasses, Sedges and Rushes 85 



Close beside the margins of the alpine lakes and streams 

 may this soft fluffy -headed Sedge be found. It has a tall 

 culm, two or three slender channelled leaves, and a single 

 terminal white or cream-coloured head composed of fine 

 silky bristles. 



Eriophorum angiistifolium, or Cotton Grass, has very 

 narrow leaves, and is a smaller, more delicate plant than the 

 preceding species. 



ARCTIC KOBRESIA 



Kobresia bipartita. Sedge Family 



Culms: solitary or tufted, smooth. Leaves: unfolded, shorter than 

 the culm. Spike: composed of several linear, appressed or ascending 

 spikelets. Fruit: achenes sessile. 



This slender mountain Sedge has a number of short, nar- 

 row leaves, and flowers growing in a terminal spike. A 

 very common plant. 



Kobresia Bellardi, or Arctic Elyna, is more densely tufted 

 than the preceding species, and the margins of the leaves 

 are revolute. 



TUSSOCK SEDGE 



Carex {estiva. Sedge Family 



Stems: triangular. Leaves: the upper longest, commonly shorter than 

 the stem. Heads: dark, ferruginous, spikes ovoid, contiguous in an ob- 

 long or crowded spherical cluster. 



These grass-like Sedges are extremely numerous. The 

 Tussock Sedge has brown-purple spikes, and rough-mar- 

 gined leaves. 



Car ex p\rcnaica, or Dwarf Sedge, is a small species, very 

 leafy at the base, and densely-flowered. It grows at high 

 altitudes. 



Carex Mertensii, or Mertens Sedge, has slender, erect 



