CYPEBACELS;. 113 



Fruit erect-adpressed, subsessile, broadly oval-lenticular, smooth, not 

 ribbed, very pale olive or p;reeuish, abruptly narrowed into a very 

 short smooth entire point or beak. Stigmas 2. Nut pale fawn-colour, 

 oblong-obovate, plano-convex. 



Var. a, genuina. 



Plate MDCXLI. 



Male spike 1. Glumes obtuse. Female spikes lax at the base. 



Var. 3, Watsoni. 

 Plate ]\rDCXLII. 



^lale spikes commonly 2. Glumes acute or mucronate. Female 

 st>ikes densely flowered throughout. Stem taller and spikes longer 

 than in var. a. 



In mai'shes. Var. a on mountains. Common on the tableland 

 which divides the counties of Aberdeen and Forfar; sparingly on 

 Loch-na-gar, Aberdeen. Var. |3, Lanarkshire ( Dr. J. Hooker, in 

 Herb. Wats.), and banks of the Almond, at Linlithgow Bridge (Dr. 

 H. Cleghorn and Mr. W. H. Campbell). The plant from Glen Clova 

 I have not seen growing: my specimens are intermediate between 

 the two vars. 



In Balfour's "Flora of Edinburgh," C. aquatilis is stated to grow 

 in Loch Fitty, Fife, but I have not seen specimens, though I should 

 expect them to belong to var. i3, which seems to be the Lowland form 

 of the species. 



Scotland. Perennial. Summer, Autumn. 



Var. a has the stems 6 to 1 8 inches high, the leaves very numerous, 

 \ inch broad or more, shorter than the stem. Male spike 1 to \^ 

 inch long; female sjiikes 1 to 2 inches long. Fruit J inch long. 



Var. ^ has much the habit of C. acuta. Stems frequently 2 feet 

 high. Female spikes between 2 and 3 inches long. Fruit destitute of 

 the ribs which distinguish the fruit of C. acuta, and more adpressed. 

 Bracts with the short prominent auricles of C. aquatilis, not the Ion"- 

 narrow adnate ones of C. acuta. 



The leaves of both forms have a tendency to become involute at the 

 edges when dried, not revolute as in all the previous species of this 

 section, and the glumes are of a redder and paler brown, the lowest 

 female spike generally lax at the base, and the leaves more numerous 

 at the base of the flowering stems. When in fruit the absence of ribs 

 distinguishes C. aquatilis from all the other Acutoe except C rigida. 



Water Sedye. 

 VOL. X. Q -. 



