YORKSHIRE NATURALISTS UNION. 



Rootstock densely tufted, falsely creeping, throwing up 

 many flowering stems in each clump. Stems t2 — 20 inches, 

 rough, angular, ascending, the outside ones curving upwards, 

 not lying down later as fruit ripens, as in C. Jyihdifera. Leaves 

 mainly though not wholly radical, flat, narrow, bright deep 

 green with reddish sheaths below, ascending, not recurved, 

 nearly or quite as long as stems. Spikelets 4 — 5, lowest one 

 alone distinctly separate, aggregated into an interrupted kind 

 of head {C. divisa-Viko), each spikelet prolonged, 8 — 12 

 flowered. Lowest bract truly leafy, twice to thrice as long as 

 the combined spike; the second one even somewhat leafy 

 and overtopping terminal spikelet. Male catkin single, 

 terminal, sessile, hardly distinct from the first female one 

 given off at its base; glume lanceolate-acuminate, pale of 

 purple brown with a green midrib and paler margin. Female 

 catkins 3 — 4, erect, long-oval, not globose (pill-like); glume 

 red or purple brown, lanceolate-ovate, acuminate hardly 

 cuspidate, with a green mid-rib, both that and the long awn 

 with fine saw-like teeth, and pale border. Perigynia, stipitate, 

 green, browner on outer face, downy, fusiform (spindle 

 shaped) with a bent gradual beak, sub-trigonous with (often) 

 one distinct rib ; nut globose, trigonous, angled and narrowed 

 below. The glumes and perigynia ascending, not spreading 

 when ripe as in C. pilulifera. 



The most striking differences between C. saxiimbra and 

 the C. pilulifera of our open moors will, from the above, be 

 seen to consist in the following features : — (i) The habit of 

 growth, in a large many-stemmed tuft in deep shade; (2) The 

 much longer ascending not recurving leaves ; (3) The generally 

 androgynous facies of the whole spike, with very leafy lowest 

 bract in place of an awl-shaped short one; (4) The elongate 

 non-pill-like character of female spikelets; (5) The less 

 cuspidate more gradually acuminate glumes with rougher 

 awns; and (6) The greener, less bristly fruit, narrowing 

 gradually to both ends, instead of being top-shaped. How 



Trans. Y.N.U., 1882 (pub. 1883). Series E 



