500 THE SEDGE FAMILY. [Carex. 



near the sea, in Europe and western Asia, from the Mediterranean to 

 Scandinavia, and in North America, although not an Arctic plant. 

 Common in Britain. Fl. summer. It varies much in the length of the 

 stalks of the lower spikelets and in the prominence of the ribs of the 

 fruit. The following are the principal varieties, which are often con- 

 sidered as species : 



a. C. fulva, Good., with short, pale-coloured spikelets, and a rather 

 long beak to the fruit. 



b. C. depauperate, Good., with only 4 or 5 fruits to the spikelet, but 

 each one larger, somewhat inflated, with a very long beak. [Very rare 

 and confined to dry woods from Kent to Somerset.] 



c. (7. binervis, Sm. , with darker spikelets and more angular fruits. 



d. C. Icevigata, Sm., like the last, but the slender green spikelets often 

 1 to 1^ inches long, much like those of 0. sylvatica, but erect, not 

 drooping. 



36. C. punctata, Good. (fig. 1146). Dotted C. Very much like the 

 common sea-coast form of C. distans, of which it may be a mere variety ; 

 but the fruits appear to be entirely without longitudinal ribs, except 

 the 3 angles, which are slightly prominent. 



Marshy places in Europe westward of Italy, extending into Norway. 

 In Britain it is local and confined to Wales and the southern half of 

 England, the south of Ireland, and Kirkcudbright in Scotland. Fl. 

 summer. 



37. C. panicea, Linn. (fig. 1147). Carnation C., Carnation-grass. 

 Stems tufted, but emitting creeping runners from the base, 1 to 1 feet 

 high, with rather short, erect, flat leaves, more or less glaucous. Spike- 

 lets usually 3, the terminal one male, the others female, distant, erect, 

 stalked, cylindrical, to 1 inch long, often loosely imbricated ; the 

 flowers, especially in the lowest one, at some distance from each other. 

 Bracts shortly leafy, with rather long sheaths. Glumes brown. Styles 

 3-cleft. Fruits ovoid, without ribs except the 3 angles, obtuse, with a 

 very short beak or point, like those of C. glauca, from which plant this 

 species differs chiefly in the more erect, loose female spikelets, and in 

 the male spikelet always solitary. 



In meadows and moist pastures, one of the commonest species through- 

 out Europe and temperate Asia, occurring also in North America. Com- 

 mon in Britain. Fl. early summer. An alpine variety, not uncommon in 

 high northern latitudes, and at considerable elevations in the mountains 

 of central Europe, and in some of the Highlands of Scotland, with the 

 sheaths of the bracts looser, the spikelets darker-coloured and few- 

 flowered, and the fruits more decidedly tapering into a beak, is 0. vagi- 

 nata, Tausch. An alpine Aberdeenshire plant, which has been referred 

 to the alpine and Pyrenean C. frigida, All., appears to me, from the 

 specimen I have seen, and from the figure in Trimen's "Journal," to be 

 rather a form of this C. vaginata, with the beak of the fruit still 

 longer. 



38. C. capillaris, Linn. (fig. 1148). Capillary C. Stems slender, 

 densely tufted, without creeping runners, 4 to 9 inches high, longer 

 than the leaves. Terminal spikelets male, and small. Female spike- 

 lets 2 or 3, much lower down, but on long, thread-like peduncles, so as 

 sometimes to exceed the male, of a rather pale-colour, loose-flowered, 

 but seldom 6 lines long. Bracts shortly leafy, the lower one with a 



