CYl'EKACK^E. 97 



from the side of the Esk, Forfarshire, in everythino; except that the 

 stems are more than 1 foot high, instead of a " span." 



Distant-spiked Sedge. 



French, Carcx espace. German, Enffernfdhrige Segge. 



SPECIES XVIL— CAR EX AXILLARIS. Good. 

 Plate JVEDCXXVIII. 

 Eeicli. Ic. Fl. Germ, et Heir. Vol. VIU. Tab. CCIX. Fig. .567. 



Rootstock densely casspitose, with very shortly creeping chordor- 

 rhizal branches, but no elongate stolons. Stems rather slender, rather 

 stiff, acutely triangular, very rough below the spike. Leaves about 

 as long as the stem, linear, nearly flat, rough on the margins towards 

 the apex, bright pale green, not glaucous. Spike very long, decom- 

 pound, greatly interrupted below, with a foliaceous bract at the base 

 usually much exceeding the spike. Spikelets 5 to 12, ovate-ovoid, 

 the lower ones digitately compound, the upper simple, all male at the 

 base or at the base and apex, female in the middle or at the middle 

 and apex, only 2 or 3 of the lowest spikelets with long foliaceous 

 bracts. Glumes of the female flowei's ovate, acute, generally mucronate, 

 very pale greenish-olive, with a green midrib, nearly as long as the fruit. 

 Fruit pale olive, erect-ascending, substipitate, lanceolate, ijlano-convex, 

 with .3 to 5 fine ribs on the back, and about 3 very indistinct ones 

 on the face, rather abruptly acuminated mto a rough-edged bifid beak 

 not half the length of the rest of the fruit. Nut whitish, ovate-oval, 

 apiculate, plano-convex. 



In hedgebanks and damp meadows. Rare, but widely distributed 

 in England, as far north as Yorkshire. Very rare in Ireland, where 

 it occurs on the south and east of that island. 



England, Ireland. Perennial. Summer. 



Very similar to C. remota, in company with which it is commonly 

 found. It is, however, a stouter plant, with more rigid and usually taller 

 stems, with much sharjjer and rougher angles ; the lowest or 2 or 3 of 

 the lowest spikelets digitatel}- compound, and sometimes the spikelets 

 are as many as 10 or 12 ; all the bracts, except the lowest, usually shorter 

 than in C. remota, which it resembles in the fruit, except that the beak 

 of tlie fruit in C. axillaris is much rougher, and the base attenuated 

 into a very short stalk. The nut has not been perfectly matured in 

 any of the si)ecimens which I have examined; but I have collected the 

 species only once, on the hedgebank of a grassy lane leading i'rom 

 Wimbledon Common, near the Camp, to the Roehamptou Road, and 

 have not been able to obtain the species to cultivate. 



VOL. X. O- 



