132 ENGLISH BOTANT. 



minute often obsolete point but no proper beak. Stigmas 3. Nut 

 tri<ionou6, loosely covered by the perigynium. 

 Flowering stems leafy in the lower half or tliird. 



SPECIES XLII— CAR EX PALLESCENS. TAnn. 



Plate MDCLVH. 



Eekh. Ic. Fl. Germ, et Helv. Vol. VHI. Tab. CCLI. Figs. G17 and 618. 

 Billot, FI. Gall, et Germ. Exsicc. No. 157:i. 



Rootstock loosely ca3spitose, without stolons. Stem erect, slightly 

 drooping at the apex in fruit, slender, weak, triangular, rough and 

 pubescent on the angles towards the apex. Leaves erect, shorter 

 than or equalling the stem, flaccid, flat, rough on the edges, 

 slightly pubescent, pale yellowish-green, not glaucous. Male spike 

 1, shortly stalked, linear- fusiform, scarcely exceeding the upper- 

 most female spike. Female spikes 2 to 3, approximate, or the 

 lower one rather remote, longly stalked, erect or slightly inclined, 

 ovoid or oblong, rather dense, many-flowered. Bracts not sheathing, 

 or scai'ccly sheathing, foliaceous, the lowest one exceeding the male 

 spike. Glumes of the female flowers lanceolate-ovate, acuminate- 

 cuspidate and very acute, pale olive, more or less tinged with reddish- 

 brown, fading to white, subpellucid. Fruit ascending, erect, sessile, 

 ovate-oblong, very obtuse, scarcely trigonous, sHghtly inflated, obso- 

 letely ribbed, shining, pale green, with a very minute entire point. 

 Stigmas 3. Nut pale yellow, oblanceolate-elliptical, with a short 

 abrupt beak. 



In moist woods and meadows. Not very common, but generally 

 distributed, extending north to Sutherland. Rather local, but widely 

 distributed in Ireland. 



England, Scotland, Ireland. Perennial. Summer. 



Plant growing in small rather loose tuft? , Stems 1 to 2 J feet high, 

 leafy for about one-third of their length from the base, the upper 

 leaves longer than the lower, the lowest sheaths without a lamina, 

 which in the broadest leaves is 5^ to ^ inch wide. Male spike i to 

 1 incli long. Lowest female spike about -^ inch long, on a stalk of 

 ^ to 1 inch long, upper stalks shorter and on shorter stalks. Glumes 

 of the male spike pale orange-brown ; those of the female spikes very 

 thin, and ultimatel}' semi-transparent. Fruit \ inch long, very 

 sliglitly enlarged towards the apex, remarkable for its rounded blunt 

 aj)ex, with a small apiculus instead of a beak. 



Sometimes the male spike has a few female flowers at the apex. 



Carex undulata ( Kume) is a form of C. pallescens, with the lowest 



