THE SEDGES 



657 



to purchase one, if only for the purpose of that this is a provision of Nature to 



examining the double-lceeled breastbone, enable the bird to feed in icy cold water 



between the two walls of which the —the frigid air being therein warmed on 



elongated windpipe passes and returns its passage to the lungs. 

 ere it enters the lungs. It is supposed Maurice C. H. Bird, 



THE SEDGES— I 



By MAUD U. CLARKE 

 With Photographs by HENRY IRVING 



THE tribe of the Sedges (Cyperacecs) 

 resemble the Rushes in some re- 

 spects, but more often the Grasses, 

 both in the leaf arrangement and also in 

 the construction of the flowering schemes. 

 For the most part, however, the leaves 

 are stouter and stiff er. with the leaf- 

 sheath \\Tapping entirely round the stem 

 and unspht. The flowers are often rudi- 

 mentary, contained in green or brown 

 spikes, solitarv or terminal : the capsule 

 being one-celled holding one nut-like seed. 

 It is a very large family and possesses 

 most \-ariable characteristics, spreading 

 over the world in all moist situations. It 

 forms an intermediate class between the 

 Grasses and Rushes, distinguished from 

 the former through the absence of the 

 secondary or inner protective scale — the 

 palea — that surrounds the flower of the 

 Grasses ; and separate from the Rushes 

 as possessing no regular perianth or 

 flower. The glumes of the Sedges are 

 mostly brown, or greenish-brown. The 

 Carex stand out amongst them as a 

 specialised type, well-defined and apart, 

 on account of certain botanical distinc- 

 tions \\hich I will not particularise other 

 than to mention the three-angled stem 

 devoid of joints or solid nodes. The 

 Greek term Keiro. I cut, gi\'es the family 

 name to this species, in respect of the 

 sharp edges of the leaves, which character 

 seems further expressed by the bayonet 

 shape of the stem. 



The lea\'es are noticeably sharp in the 

 case of Carex viilpina, the Great or Fox 



Sedge, one commonly met with in wet 

 ground. The height is variably from 

 two to four feet, half a dozen grassy 

 leaves springing from the stem at the 

 lower six inches of its growth, the re- 

 mainder shooting upwards bearing the 

 green or pale-brown spike at the top. 

 The length of the spike itself is also 

 variable, from one to three inches. 



The bracts associated with the flower- 

 ing glumes are widely spread and bristly ; 

 the whole spike when in the seeded state 

 being stiff and harsh with the beaked 

 glumes and pointed bracts. 



The surface of the angled stem is 

 grooved, shining, and of a very beautiful 

 green colour. The flowering continues 

 through June and July, and b}' August 

 the stiffened heads show the beaked 

 fruit encased witliin the bracts. Some- 

 times one comes upon this Sedge tufting 

 up under shelter of the gorse on commons 

 where there are water-holes below, making 

 beautiful curved lines of bright green 

 against the sombre spinous growth. In 

 such places the gold flowers of the Lesser 

 Spearwort often glitter in quantity, the 

 plant we recognise as a buttercup in the 

 flower, yet diftering from it in growth 

 and leaf-structure. Quite likely the Water 

 Crcjwfoot, too, may be there, spreading a 

 patch of its green hnear leaves over the 

 ground, with a white flower or two still 

 showing though the pool has become gi"ass- 

 grown. 



It is certainly a rather confusing matter, 

 when one's knowledge of plants is a little 



