Mr. W. 0. Priestley on some British species of Carex. 189 



interesting, I have been induced to lay them in as brief a manner 

 as possible before this Society. I have had my attention parti- 

 cularly directed to a mode of arranging them, by which they 

 might be more correctly studied, and with greater ease. It is 

 however by no means an easy matter to form divisions which will 

 answer this purpose. The number of male and female spikelets, 

 the arrangement of them on the stem, their being erect or pen- 

 dulous, stalked or sessile, bracteated or ebracteated, are very 

 variable characters, and a slight difference in situation may cause 

 many and altered forms of the same plant. The most stable cha- 

 racters I believe will be found in the fruit, — in its form, nerves, 

 and position on the spike, and I think so well marked are the 

 differences, that a person familiar with these might recognise 

 three-fourths of our Carices by the fruit alone. Still, this is not 

 universal ; there would be great difficulty for instance in distin- 

 guishing the fruit of C. remota from that of C axillaris, and some 

 of the intermediate forms between ccespitosa and striata. Nature 

 indeed appears as though she would be bound by no laws, and 

 the same obstacles to accurate and stable arrangement which 

 exist in every other branch of natural history are met with in 

 many of the genera of plants. We must however have classi- 

 fication to assist us in the acquisition of every science, and if we 

 cannot have a perfect one, we must be content to make excep- 

 tions. 



Yet so important do I think the fruit as a means of diagnosis 

 in Carices, that I think every one wishing to name them cor- 

 rectly should have authentic specimens, or at least correct draw- 

 ings, for differences are not so easily described as they may be 

 seen. 



I have first to read a short description of a Carex, a living 

 specimen of which is now before the Society, C montana, and 

 shall then notice two or three of our more obscure species. 



C. montana. 



Male spikelet terminal, clavate, fertile, 2-3 sessile, ovate, ap- 

 proximate, closely surrounding the barren spikelet. Bracts glume- 

 like, membranous, terminating in a foliaceous scabrous apiculus, 

 the lowest longer than its spikelet. Glumes purplish brown, the 

 male obtuse, the fertile mucronate. Stigmas 3 ; style long, ex- 

 serted. Fruit hairy, bluntly triquetrous, oblong obovate, acute 

 below, emarginate at the apex, with the long beak of the nut 

 protruded. A prominent line running down each anterior face. 

 Colour pale, longer than the glumes when mature. Nut ellip- 

 tical, attenuated below, with a rather long tapering beak. Stem 

 5-6 inches high, slender, triquetrous, with rough angles. 



Leaves chiefly radical, confined to the base of the stem, nar- 



