134 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



the base of the spike next above it, and never reaching that of the 

 male spike. Glumes of the female flowers oval-ovate, subacute, 

 purplish-brown or reddish-black, with a green stripe on the midrib 

 and pale scarious margins, as long and as broad as the fruit, but 

 exposing it by being ultimately spreading. Fruit ascending, sessile, 

 rhomboidal-ovoid, pointed, scarcely trigonous, slightly inflated, very 

 uidistinctly nerved, dim, glaucous-green, sometimes tinged with 

 purplish-brown, fading to dull yellowish-olive, rather abruptly acumi- 

 nated into a short deflexed smooth entire or obsoletely notched beak. 

 Stigmas 3. Nut pale bro-\vn, obovate-turbinate, bluntly triquetrous, 

 shortly beaked. 



In meadows and marshy places. Common, and generally distributed. 



England, Scotland, Ireland. Perennial. Early Summer. 



Stems 6 inches to 2 feet high, glaucous, with a few leaves at the 

 base, and with the lowest bract often growing from the middle of the 

 stem, though sometimes much higher, especially in the mountain forms. 

 Leaves ^ to -^ inch broad, very similar to those of C. glauca, but less 

 rigid. Male spike i to 1\ inch long; female spikes ^ to 1| inch long, 

 the lowest one often very lax at the base and upon a stalk longer than 

 the sheath of its bract so as to be exserted. Fruit ^ inch long, with 

 a hump at the base on the outer side, and a more gradual bulging 

 towards the apex on the side next the axis of the spike. Nut larger 

 than in most of the British species, nearly ^ inch long. 



In mountainous districts a form occurs with the leaves rather less 

 glaucous ; the glumes darker with the dorsal green stripe not broader 

 than the midrib and the scarious margins very narrow ; and the fruit 

 more or less tinged with purplish-brown. 



C. panicea has much the habit of C. glauca, but difl"ers in the 

 sheathing bracts, erect spikes, and oblique swollen fruit. 



Pink-leaved Sedge. 



French, Carex panic. German, Hirsenartige Segge. 



SPECIES XLIV.— C AREX VAGINATA. Tausch. 



Plate MDCLIX. 



Beich. Ic. Fl. Germ, et Helv. Vol. VIII. Tab. CCXLVI. Fig. 609. 



Billof, Fl. Gall, et Germ. Exsicc. No. 3481. 



C. panicea, var. /3, sparsiflora, Wold. Kunth, Enum. Plant. Vol. 11. p. 4G0. 



C. sparsiflora, Steucl. Fries, Summ. Veg. Scand. p. 71. 



C. ilieUchoferi, Sm. Engl. Bot. ed. i. No. 2293 ; and Engl. Fl. Vol. IV. p. 98 (non 



Schl:) 

 C. phasostacliya, Sm. Engl. Fl. Vol. IV. p. 99. E. Forster, in Engl. Bot. Suppl. No. 



2731. 



Rootstock creeping, with long stolons. Stem erect, rather slender. 



