CYl'EIiACE.T;. 95 



the apex, bright green, not glaucous. Spike compound, oblong-cylin- 

 drical, usually slightly interrupted, Avith a bract at the base which has 

 cither no setaceous point or one much shorter than the spike. Spike- 

 lets 3 to 5, simple, roundish, male below, female at the apex. Glumes 

 of the female flowers ovate, acute, pale olive with a green nerve 

 (rarely brownish with a green nerve), shorter than the fruit. Fruit 

 sessile, spreading-divaricate, olive, rounded and spongy at the base, 

 plano-convex, and a few faint short ribs on the back, but none 

 on the face, except the strong marginal ones which run into the 

 beak, rather gradually acuminated into a 2-toothed roughish-edged 

 beak rather shorter than the rest of the fruit. Stigmas 2. Nut pale 

 olive, i*homboidal-oval, lenticular. 



In bogs. Connnon, and generally distributed. 



England, Scotland, Ireland. Perennial. Summer. 



Stems numerous, 3 to 18 inches high. Spikes f to 1 inch long, 

 composed of from 3 to 5 spikelets about ^ inch long. Fruit J inch 

 long, with the beak deflexed. 



The form with brownish glumes (var. brunescens. Fries.) I have 

 gathered on Ben Lawers, but it scarcely deserves to be termed a 

 variety. 



C. stellulata resembles C. muricata in miniature, but may be dis- 

 tinguished when in flower by the male flowers being at the base 

 instead of the apex of the spikelets, and the bracts much shorter, even 

 the lowest one being often not foliaceous. In fruit it may be known 

 by the spikelets being fewer, and the fruit smaller, rounded and corky 

 at the base, with a more deflexed and less deeply bifid beak, and with 

 a much more strongly marked marginal rib down each side. 



Little Prickhj Sedge. 

 French, Carex etoile. German, Sternfurmtge Serjcje. 



Group I. REMOTiE. 



Rootstock ca^spitose. Spikes greatly interrupted. Bracts long, 

 foliaceous, the lowest one commonly exceeding the spike. Spikelets 

 pale green or pale brown, distant, especially at the base of the spike, 

 male at the base, female in the middle and apex, or sometimes again 

 male at the apex. Fruit ascending, sessile or substipitate, with a long 

 2-toothed beak. Sti"^mas 2. 



