6=;8 



THE NATURE BOOK 



limited 

 of a 



any yard 

 commons 



to attempt dealing with the items Speedwell spreading below 

 of species growing on 

 or two of damp ground on our 

 or waste lands. There are 



conglomerate 



plants that look like something we know, 

 only there is a perplex- 

 ing variation that con- 

 vinces one it is certainly 

 not that plant but 

 another. One stumbles 

 u]i()n the illimitable 

 ])()wer of variation, the 

 expression of Nature's 

 wonderful flexibility ; it 

 is there for us to learn 

 of, or let alone according 

 to our bent. In just 

 such a water-hole, or in 

 its immediate neighbour- 

 hood, we may also find 

 (\(rex leporina. It is a 

 far more slender 

 species, with long, 

 thin stem of the same 

 three-angled form, some- 

 times rising as high as 

 four feet when pushing 

 through the under- 

 growth, or may be only 

 twelve inches, as cir- 

 cumstance allows. The 

 grassy leaves are much 

 narrower than those of 

 C. viilpina, tapering into 

 almost threacl-like form 

 at the extremity. The 

 outer scales at the base 

 of the spikelets also ter- 

 minate in fine hairs 

 longer than the scale 

 itself. The flowering 

 head is usuafly composed of five or 

 six spikelets placed in close succession 

 round the axis (jf the 

 examination they show 

 bending from the point 

 These hairs, in the 



GREAT OR FOX SEDGE. 



stem 



on close 

 very fine hairs 

 of the glumes, 

 early flowering 



stage, give a very soft effect to the 

 whole mass. 



Provided the damp situation is given, 

 we can find these Sedges in very many 

 different combinations of circumstances 

 and surroundings, especially in such 



quarters as those oi a boggy common 



I have found them piercing through the closely together with the 



bramble vines, with the little Marsh at a distance ; whereas 



or sprmging 

 up above water grasses such as the 

 Floating Fox-tail and Flote Grass ; or 

 growing clear out in the open, surrounded 

 l)y the Carnation Grass, stiffly erect, curl- 

 ing its grey-green leaves 

 like ornamental i r o n- 

 work. This latter plant 

 is also a Sedge, by the 

 way — Carex panicea. 

 Enthusiasts never tire, 

 as a rule ; and if plants 

 happen to be the ob- 

 jects for the enthusiasm, 

 the eyes of the enthu- 

 siasts are ah\'ays ranging 

 the ground for possible 

 discoveries of that sort. 

 In this way little Carex 

 flava may be happened 

 on, even if only showing 

 its minimum presenta- 

 tion of three inches, 

 when it is an incon- 

 spicuous greenish plant 

 rising from green grass. 

 There is no mistak- 

 ing the Sedge character 

 when once known, with 

 its spikelets set upon 

 the flower stem rising 

 vertically from a tuft 

 of grassy leaves. The 

 height may be as much 

 as eighteen inches, the 

 plant being easily recog- 

 nised by the yeUowish- 

 green colour of both 

 leaves and spikelets. 

 The fruit is beaked, and 

 set outwards from the 

 axis of the spikelet, sheathed with bristly 

 bracts. 



In the ilhistration (p. 659) the two top- 

 most spikelets are shown in the dried-off 

 stage, when the soft mass of closed bracts 

 becomes a sih'cry fawn colour. They 

 are the staminate spikelets holding the 

 staminate flowers ; the lower ones of the 

 stems are always the pistillate, or fruiting 

 spikelets, either stalked in some species, 

 or set close to the stem. 



In Carex Goodenovi, the Common Tufted 

 Sedge, we see the pistillate spikelets set 



staminate one 

 in Carex remota. 



