no ENGLISH BOTANY. 



iiiclics, more chestnut in colour, more decompound, the lowest spikelet 

 conuuonly ^ to 1 inch long, tind l're(jucutly interrupted. Fruit similar, 

 but more swollen, more truncate at the base, and with more numerous 

 short ribs, much less distinctly winged along the edges of" the beak. 

 Nut darker brown, much broader at the base, and much less com- 

 pressed and with the base of the style slightly thickened. 



Paradoxical Sedge. 

 French, Carex changeaiit. German, Ahweichende Segge. 



SPECIES XII.-C ARE X PANICULATA. Linn. 

 Plate MDCXXII. 



Beicli. Ic. Fl. Germ, ct Helv. Vol. VIII. Tab. CCXXIII. 

 BlUof, Fl. Gall, et Germ. Exsicc. No. 2756. 



Rootstock very densely csespitose, growing in large often elevated 

 tussocks, without elongated stolons. Stenas stout, stiff, sharply tri- 

 angular, very rough in the upper part. Leaves as long as the stem, 

 linear, channelled, rough on the edges, green, not glaucous. Spikes 

 usually very decompound (rarely slightly decompound), ovoid or 

 fusiform or cyUndrical-fusiform, commonly interrupted below, with a 

 bract at the base having a short setaceous herbaceous point usually 

 much shorter than the lowest spikelet. Spikelets 8 to 14, ovoid or 

 cylindrical, usually compound towards the base, only the lowest 

 spikelet with a short herbaceous bract, male at the apex and female 

 below. Glumes of the female flowers ovate-acuminate, reddish-brown 

 with broad white scarious margins, about as long as the fruit. Fruit 

 dark brow'u with green margins, paler on the beak, shortly stipitate, 

 triangular-ovate, truncate at the base, swollen on the back, where there 

 are immerous faint ribs, flatfish on the face, where there are 3 to 5 

 short ribs, rather abruptly acuminated into a flatfish bifid beak as 

 long as the rest of the fruit and mth broadly- winged serrulate margins. 

 Style thickened at the base; stigmas 2. Nut light brown, obovate, 

 plano-convex. 



In marshes and wet thickets. Not very common, but distributed 

 from Cornwall and Kent to Orkney, and from the north to the south 

 of Ireland. 



England, Scotland, Ireland. Perennial. Sunnner. 



A much larger and coarser [ilant than C. teretiuscula and C. para- 

 doxa, Avhich Mr. Bentham joins to the present species. C. paniculata 

 "rows in laro-e dense tufts, producing very niunerous stems; these 

 tufts fre(jucntlv become elevated 1 foot or more above the siirnice of 



