12G ENGLISH BOTANY. 



spikes 1 to 3, contiguous, or the lowest one approximate, sessile, 

 ascending-erect, ovate-ovoid, rather lax, 2- to 10-flowered. Bracts 

 not sheathing, scarious, the lowest one mth or Avithout a setaceous or 

 subulate herbaceous point shorter than its o\\ti spike. Glumes of the 

 female flowers broadly ovate or roundish-ovate, obtuse, the lower ones 

 retuse and more or less conspicuously mucronate, wrapped round the 

 fruit, purplish-black, with a green or pale midrib and concolorous 

 margins, shorter but broader than the fruit. Fruit erect-ascending, 

 indistinctly stipitate, oblong-obovate, trigonous, gradually narrowed at 

 the base, conspicuously ribbed, with all the 3 angles prominent, coarsely 

 pubescent, pale green, ultimately olive, very gradually acuminated into 

 a short entire beak. Nut stij^itate, pale olive, elliptical, triquetro- 

 trigonous, acuminate. 



In heathy fields and in woods, most partial to limestone. Very 

 local. Discovered in 1842 by Mr. William Llitten, in a field between 

 Tunbridge Wells and Bridge, Sussex. Since then it has been found 

 in several places along the course of the Wye, in Gloucester, Mon- 

 mouth, Hereford, and Worcester. 



England. Perennial. Spring. 



Rootstock thick, much branched, clothed .with the withered bases of 

 the leaves of former years, the branches terminating in several tufts 

 of barren leaves and a few flowering stems 6 to 18 inches high, at first 

 erect, afterwards more or less inclined and drooping, as the fruit 

 increases in size. Leaves of the barren shoots often nearly as long as 

 the stem, g^ to |^ inch wide, with the sheaths red at the base, the upper 

 surface pubescent when young, but the hairs appear to be deciduous 

 as the older leaves are glabrous. Leaves at the base of the flowering 

 stem with the lamina very short and narrow, ^ to 1 inch long. Male 

 spike ^ to |- inch long ; female spikes ^ to | inch long. Fruit | inch 

 long. 



A well-marked species, distinguished from the others of the group 

 Montana by its greatly thickened shaggy rhizome, purplish-brown 

 sheaths, short approximate spikes with very broad purplish-black 

 obtuse or retuse and mucronated glumes, indistinctly foliaceous bracts, 

 and fruit clothed with shaggy hairs. 



Mountain Sedge. 



French, Gwrex de mmitagne. German, Berg-Segge. 



