126 MONOECIA— TRIANDRIA. Carex. 



copiously branched, but the barren ones likewise are so multi- 

 plied, or divided at the base, that they amount to 6 or more. 



59. C. secalina. Rye Carex. 



Fertile catkins ovate-cylindrical; the lowei- one very re- 

 mote. Scales acute. Sheaths as long as the flower-stalks. 

 Fruit ovate, rough-edged, compressed ; concave at the 

 inner side ; with an elongated, linear, cloven beak. Stem 

 smooth. 



C. secalina. fVilld. Sp. PI. v. 4. 309. Wahlenb. Stockh. Trans, for 

 1803. 151. Schk. Car. B. 139. t. S./. 65. 



jS. Fertile catkins aggregate. Schk. t. K,k,/. 98. Willd. u.4.310. 



In valleys in Scotland, 



In a Den near Panmure, about 9 miles south-east of Forfar. Mr. 

 T. Drummond. 



Perennial. June, July ? 



Root apparently creeping, with stout, dark brown, reddish, branch- 

 ed fibres. Herbage naked. Stems a foot high, or more, erect, 

 with 3 very smooth angles ; leafy below. Leaves linear, flat, 

 ribbed, rough-edged, pointed, rather narrow, resembling those 

 of the last, but not hairy. Bracteas like the leaves, very long, 

 with naked smooth sheaths, from 1 to 2 inches in length. Barren 

 catkins 2, often solitary, slender, with obovate, blunt, filmy 



■ scales ; fertile 3 or 4, the uppermost often near together j in p 

 aggregate ; the lower one, or two, very remote ; all on stalks 

 concealed by the sheaths of the bracteas, erect, short, thick, with 

 ovate acute scales, pale and thin at their edges. Stam. 3. 

 Stigm. 3. Fruit large, ovate, with a thin rough edge ; convex 

 and strongly ribbed externally, without any hairiness ; deeply 

 concave at the inner side, being so greatly compressed as to 

 have no considerable cavity, by which character it essentially 

 differs from C. hirta, the beak, moreover, being longer, narrower, 

 rough at the edges, and somewhat membranous at the orifice. 

 Seed obovate-oblong, triangular. 



My liberal friend Mr. W. Robertson of Newcastle favoured me with 

 specimens of this, among Mr. Drummond's Scottish discoveries, 

 under the name of C. hordeiformis, on the authority of a French 

 botanist. It may be that species, of which we know nothing but 

 from a figure of Villars, copied in Schkuhr, t. D, d, A,f. 121. I 

 have most of the plants of Villars, an excellent and original au- 

 thor, though his figures are bad; but unluckily I cannot find a 

 specimen of his Carex in question. I think there can be no 

 doubt of its being the same as C. secalina, Schkuhr having ac- 

 tually seen the latter only. 



