CYrEiJAcr.-T;. 143 



acuminate and inucronate or apiculatc glumes. Female spikes 2 

 to 4, remote, or the lowest one distant, the lowest on long greatly 

 exserted capillary stalks, and the upper spikes on short slightly 

 cxsertcd stalks, erect, ovoid, lax, 2- to 7- (generally 3-) flowered. 

 IJracts sheathing, foliaceous, with the lamina greatly exceeding its 

 own spike, and nsually extending beyond the apex of the male 

 spike. Glumes of the female flowers oval-oblong, acute, pale 

 reddish-brown, Avith a green stripe on the back and white scarious 

 margins, ultimately nearly wholly white, shorter and narrower than 

 tlie fruit. Fruit erect, conspicuously stipitate, broadly obdvate, 

 narrowed towards the base, very bluntly trigonous, not inflated,* 

 strongly and closely ribbed, slightly shining, olive-green, abruptly 

 narrowed into a very long straight trigonous-cylindrical rough-edged 

 biloljcd- and membranous-mouthed beak, nearly as long as the rest of 

 the fruit, and slightly twisted on its own axis. Stigmas 3. Nut 

 pule yellow, scai-cely stipitate, oval-obovate, trigonous, very abruptly 

 acuminated into a short apiculus, and closely covered by the peri- 

 gyuium. 



In woods and thickets. Very rare. Originally found in the wood 

 behind Charlton Church, Kent, by Dr. Goodenough, but I am not 

 aware that it has been seen there lately; in several woods about 

 Godalming, where I gathered it in 1852 in company with the late Mr. 

 J. D. Salmon : the stations given in the " Flora of Surrey " are 

 " Godalming "VYood, and Frith Hill, sparingly. Plentiful in a copse 

 at Westbrook, and in a copse against Hartmoor Cottages." Axbridge, 

 Somerset, whence I have specimens from j\Ir. T. B. Flower and the 

 Rev. A. M. Norman. It has also been reported from Devon. 



England. Perennial. Early Summer. 



Plant growing in large tufts. Branches of the rhizome short, thick, 

 clothed with stout fibres formed of the decayed remains of the leaf- 

 shcaths, with a tendency to become shortly chordorrhizal. Flowering 

 stem 1 to 3 feet liigh, surrounded at the base with long leaves, which 

 are withered at the apex by the time of flowering, and have brownish- 

 pur[)le sheaths all bearing a lamina. Barren shoots with the lowest 

 sheaths pointed and without a lamina. Leaves |^ to |^ inch broad, 

 with strong prominent asperous ribs on the upper side, and still 

 stronger smooth ones beneath, the summit of their sheaths witli a 

 rounded sinus, and no prominent lobes on the side opposite the stem. 



* I use the tenn " inflated " only when tlicro is a vacant spane between the 

 [icrigynium and the nut. 



