CYPERACEiE. 131 



iniiny-flowcrcd. Bracts scarcely sheathing, scarious, whitish, with a 

 broad herbaceous strip on tlic back ending in a subulate or foliaceous 

 not ciliated lamina exceeding its S2)ike and occasionally extending to 

 the summit of the male s^jike. Glumes of the female tlowers broadly 

 ovate, acuminated or acute, purplish-brown, with a broad green 

 midrib and concolorous margins, which are not ciliated, shorter and 

 narrower than the fruit. Fruit ascending-erect, indistinctly stipitate, 

 obovate-turbinate, bluntly trigonous, gradually narrowed at the base, 

 the 3 angles blunt, with a nearly obsolete rib on each of the two 

 lower faces, densely tomentose, greenish-white, with a pale reddish- 

 browTi apex, very abruptly acuminated into a very short slightly bifid 

 point or beak. Stigmas 3. Nut pale yellowish-olive, obovate, tri- 

 gonous, mucrouate, without a membranous disk surrounding the base 

 of the style. 



In meadows (on the Continent iii woods). Very rare. Water 

 Meadows, Marston j\Iaisy, in the north-eastern division of Wiltshire ; 

 "East Gloucester?" (Mr. H. C. Watson, Comp. Cyb. Brit. p. 377). 



England. Perennial. Summer. 



Leaves ^ inch broad. Stems 8 to 18 inches high. Male spike ^ 

 to 1 inch long. Female spikes i to -J inch long. Fruit t'o- inch long, 

 with much coarser and whiter down than in C. pra^cox, and a wider- 

 mouthed beak. 



1 have the plant in cultivation from Wiltshire, received from Mr. 

 T. B. Flower. In the garden it forms rather large dense tufts, with 

 numerous stems, and throws out elongate stolons which do not flower 

 until they have formed a tuft similar to the parent plant. 



Downy-fruited Sedge. 



French, Carex cotmmeux. German, Fihfriichti'je Segge. 



Group Pt.—PALLESCENTES. 



Rootstock caespitose, without stolons, or with short ones. Spikes 

 approximate or rarely remote. Male sjiike 1, very shortly stalked, 

 rarely longly stalked, sometimes with a few female flowers. Female 

 spikes 2 to 5, on slender more or less elongate stalks, rather dense, 

 erect or slightly inclined. Glumes greenish- or reddish-olive, ulti- 

 mately nearly white. Lowest bract foliaceous, usually longer than 

 the stem, without a closed sheath, or with a very short one. Fruit 

 permanently green, ovoid, obtuse, scarcely trigonous, not depressed, 

 moderately inflated, pellucid, shining, faintly ribbed, with a very 



s -2. 



