CYPERACE.T. 121 



male spike, not sheathinir, with 2 long adnate auricles at the base 

 with short free tips. Glumes of the female flowers roundish-ovate, 

 obtuse or rarely apiculate, reddish-black, with the midrib and mar- 

 gins pale or chestnut, wrapped round the fruit, as long as and broader 

 than the fruit. Fruit erect, subsessile, elliptical, trigonous-ovoid, not 

 inflated, veiy faintly ribbed, smooth, glaucous green, very gradually 

 acuminated into an extremely short deflexed entire point or beak. 

 Stigmas .3. Kut pale brown, broadly oval, bluntly trigonous, very 

 shortl}' mucronate, closely covered by the perigynlura. 



In bogs and on mountains. Very local. Abundant on the table- 

 land between the counties of Aberdeen and Forfar, Glen Dole and 

 Glen Canness, Clova; Loch-na-gar, Aberdeen ; Cairngorm, Baufi^ ; said 

 to occur also in Moray, and possible also in Sutherland. 



Scotland. Perennial. Summer. 



Stem 3 to 12 inches high, stouter in proportion than tliat of C. 

 limosa. Leaves short, contined to the base of the stem and to the 

 liarren shoots. Male spike about ^^ inch long. Female spikes f to |- 

 inch long. Fruit ^ inch long, difl^'ering from that of C. irrigua and 

 C. limosa in being but very slightly compressed and with scarcely any 

 perceptible beak. The glumes are much darker in colour than in 

 either of the two preceding species, and they are so broad that they 

 wrap round the fruit, at least the lowest ones do. The lax spikes 

 give the plant an aspect veiy diff'erent from that of C. limosa or C. 

 irrigua. The auricles are much longer than those of C. limosa and 

 considerably longer than those of C. irrigua. The herbaceous point 

 of the lowest bract is sometimes very short and subsetaceous, and is 

 wanting altogether except to the lowest female spike. Very fre- 

 quently 2 of the female spikes spring from nearly the same height on 

 the stem; this is particularly the case when there are 3 spikes, as in 

 that case 2 of them seem always to be placed close together. 



In the " Cybele Britannica," Mr. H. C. Watson writes : " !Much 

 doubt attaches to the more northerly habitat of Sutherland. Pro- 

 fessor Graham, along with Mr. "W. A. Stables and Mr. W. H. Camp- 

 bell, pronounce the plant of Sutherland to be C. rariflora; but my 

 specimens from that county, gathered by Dr. G. Macnab and the three 

 other botanists mentioned, appear to be nearer C. limosa. Dr. Graham 

 TSTote thus in 1833: ' Carex rariflora observed near Oikle by Mr. 

 Macnab. I afterwards found it by the road opposite the west side of 

 Ben Hope, and Mr. Tyacke found it at the base of Ben Loyal. In 

 182.5 Mr. Holme and I found it in Batcall Moss, Piconick, and Old- 

 shore. I then considered it C. limosa, and 1 am still inclined to agree 

 with those botanists who can see no good specific distinctions be- 

 tween C. rariflora, C. limosn, and C. irrigua.'" — Cyb. Brit. vol. iii. 

 p. 129. 



VOL. X. R - 



