SCHCENUS.] CYPEBACE^E. 4-17 



S. ni'gricans, L. ; stems terete, spike obovoid usually much shorter 

 than the bract. 



Bogs and wet moors, rather local, Shetland to Cornwall and Surrey ; ascends 

 to 1,000 ft. in the Highlands ; Ireland ; Channel Islands ; fl. June- July. 

 Rootstock short, stout, branched. Stems 6-24 in., in dense hard tufts of 

 matted sheaths and leaves, terete, wiry, leafless above ; sheaths copious, 

 red brown or black, shining. Leaves wiry, terete, margins convolute, Spikes 

 -f in., dark red-brown, shining ; bract setaceous. Spikelets 4-10, erect, 

 linear-oblong. Glumes irregularly distichous, oblong-lanceolate, subacute ; 

 keel scaberulous. Bristles barbed upwards. Nut small, ovoid, white. 

 DISTRIB. Europe, N. Africa, Siberia. 



7. CLA'DIUM, P. Brown. 



Coarse, harsh, perennial, usually tall, grassy herbs. Spikelets terete, 

 usually pauicled or cymose. Glumes few, concave, imbricate all round 

 the rachis, 1-3 only flower-bearing. Flowers 2-sexual, or the lower male. 

 Bristles 0. Stamens 2-3. Style, deciduous, tumid but not jointed at the 

 base, stigmas 2-3. Nut globose ovoid or 3-gonous, mucronate or beaked, 

 peri carp "thick corky, endocarp hard. DISTRIB. All climates except very 

 cold ; species about *20. ETYM. /cAaSos, a twig. 



C. Maris'cus, Br. ; stems terete, spikelets clustered on the branches 

 of many crowded compound cymes. C. german'icum, Schrad. (an older 

 name). 



Bogs and marshes, local in England, from the Border southd. ; Sutherland, 

 Wigton, and Berwick in Scotland ; Ireland ; fl. July-Aug. Rootstock stout, 

 creeping. Stems 2-5 ft., stout, erect, terete or obscurely 3-gonous, very 

 leafy. Leaves 2-4 ft., ^ in. diam., rigid, glaucous, channelled, keeled, 

 margins serrulate, points very long. Cymes axillary and terminal, corym- 

 bose ; branches 1-3 in., erect or recurved, bracts setaceous. Spikelets ^ in., 

 crowded in pedicelled heads ^ in. diam. Glumes 5-6, obtuse, pale-brown, 

 lower short, upper oblong-lanceolate flowering. Flowers about 2, one fertile. 

 Stamens usually 2 ; anthers apiculate. Nut small, ovoid, 3-gonous, beaked, 

 brown. DISTRIB. From Gothland southd., N. Africa, Siberia. 



8. KOBRE SIA, Willd. 



Small perennial sedges. Leaves rigid, keeled. Spikelets in a terminal 

 compressed ovoid spike, few-fld., some male, others male (upper) and 

 female. Glumes 2-3, imbricate all round the rachis, lowest flowerless. 

 Bristles 0. MALE fl. Stamens 3. FEMALE fl. at the base of a convolute 

 bract. Ovary 3-gonous ; style-base simple, stigmas 3. Nut 3-gonous. 

 DISTRIB. Arctic and Alpine Europe, N. Asia, Himalaya; species 8. 

 ETYM. De Kobres, a German patron of botany. 



K. carici'na, Willd. ; lower spikelets with one female flower. 



Upland moors, York, Durham, Westmoreland, Argyll, and Perth (ascends to 

 about 2,500 ft.) ; fl. Aug. Rootstock short. Stems 4-9 in., densely tufted, 



