J 62 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



not glaucous ; sheaths on the base of the stem at length split- 

 ting, and with filamentous margins. Male spikes 2 or 4, the upper- 

 most one subsessile or rarely stalked, the others sessile, fusiform- 

 cylindrical, thick, blunt, with oblong shortly cuspidate reddish-brown 

 glumes ^vith green midribs and broad white scarious margins. 

 Female . spikes 1 to 3, remote, the lowest one near or sometimes 

 even below the middle of the stem on a rather long shortly-exserted 

 stalk, the upper ones on shorter stalks, the uppermost subsessile, 

 erect, cylindrical, rather dense, many-flowered. Lowest bract longly 

 (sheathing, with a long foliaceous lamina falling short of the male 

 spike, upper bracts more shortly sheathing, the uppennost not at 

 all, but the lamina reaching nearly up to the male spike, all rarely 

 with scarcely any lamina. Glumes of the female flowers ovate, 

 acuminate, cuspidate or more usually aristate, shortly ciliate on the 

 margins, and also on the keel of the awn, reddish-brown, with a broad 

 green stripe on the back, and very broad white scarious margins, 

 sometimes nearly wholly white and scarious, shorter (excluding 

 the awn, as being liable to vary in length) and narrower than the 

 fruit. Fruit erect, scarcely stipitate, ovate- acuminate, compressed- 

 ovoid, scarcely trigonous, considerably inflated, with several strong 

 ribs and 2 stronger marginal ones, densely woolly-pubescent, olive 

 green, ultimately reddish-brown, insensibly narrowed into a long thick 

 hispid straight 2 -toothed beak, nearly as long as the rest of the fruit ; 

 teeth very long, subulate, suberect, nearly as long as the rest of the 

 beak. Stigmas 3. Nut pale olive-yellow, ovoid, triquetrous, obtuse, 

 rather loosely covered by the perigynium. 



Var. a, genuina. 



Sheaths and leaves clothed vnih soft hair. Bracts with a long 

 foliaceous lamina. Glumes pubescent, cuspidate or aristate. 



Var. 3, hirtiformis. 



C. hirtieeformis, Pers. Syn. PI. Vol. II. 547. 



Sheaths and leaves glabrous, or nearly so. Bracts with a long 

 foliaceous lamina. Glumes glabrous, cuspidate or aristate. 



Var. 7, ebracteata. 



Sheaths and leaves glabrous. Bracts with a subulate point, but no 

 foliaceous lamina, even the lowest bract scarcely sheathing. Glumes 

 glabrous, obtuse, apiculate. 



