299 



male, small. Female spikelets 2 or 3, lower down, on long capillary 

 peduncles, so that they are nodding, distant, and lax. Female 

 spikelet of 5-10 flowers, but the spikelet is very small and short. 

 Bracts shortly leafy, the lower bract having a long sheath. Glumes 

 scarious at the margins. Stigmas 3. Fruit trigonous, not nerved, 

 tapering into a short beak. M 



Damp and sandy Alpine pastures, borders of springs and wet 

 rocks in the Alps and sub-Alps, up to 8200 feet at least. July. 

 Often growing with other Carices. 



Distribution. Alps ; Pyrenees, Caucasus, Arctic Europe and 

 Asia ; North America ; North Britain. 



Carex alba Scop. 



A slender species 6-12 inches high, with narrow linear leaves 

 with yellow-brown sheaths. Stem erect, rough at the edge, bearing 

 1-3 female, long-stalked spikelets, the upper one usually extending 

 above the white, male spikelet. Stem-leaves are usually no more 

 than long sheaths surrounding the base of the flower-stalks. Bracts 

 oval, acuminate, whitish, as long as the trigonous, greenish fruit, 

 which is finely nerved and beaked. 



Mountain woods, especially in limestone districts, as, e.g. near 

 Engelberg. May, June. 



Distribution. Alps, Eastern and Southern France, Cevennes, 

 Corbieres ; Central Europe, N. America. 



Carex ferruginea Scop. (Plate X.) 



Rootstock creeping, stoloniferous. Stems slender, about a foot 

 high, sometimes more. Spikelets dark brown. Lowermost spikelets 

 usually pendent on longish, delicate stalks. Glumes rusty brown. 

 Fruit elliptical, flat in the anterior part, glabrous, with a short 

 bifid beak. 



Shady places in the Alps from about 4000 to 7000 feet. June. 



Distribution. Alps, Jura, Eastern Pyrenees, mountains of 

 Central Europe. 



Carex flava L. Yellow Sedge. (Plate XXII.) 



Densely tufted and leafy, from 4-12 inches high, and often 

 yellowish in colour, especially the fruiting spikelets. Leaves flat. 

 Terminal spikelet male. Female spikelets 1-3 sessile or shortly 

 stalked and near the male, and often there is one female spikelet 

 much lower down on a longer stalk. Bracts leaf-like and sheathing 

 at the base. Stigmas 3. Fruits ovoid, distinctly nerved, with a 

 prominent beak. 



Damp meadows, peat bogs, etc., in the plains and lower moun- 

 tains. May to July. 



Distribution. Europe from the Mediterranean to the Arctic 

 regions, Russian Asia, N. America. British. 



