562 THE SEDGE FAMILY. 



among all the British species with distinct male and female spikelets, by 

 the 2-cleft styles and almost flat fruits. The rootstock has creeping runners, 

 but the stems are often densely tufted, enclosed at the base by the brown 

 sheaths of the leaves, the outer ones often without blades and worn into 

 ragged fibres. In dry soils the stems are scarcely 6 inches high, and the 

 leaves stUl shorter ; in rich swamps the stems attain 4 feet, with the leaves 

 almost as long. Spikelets 3 to 6, each fi-om i to 1^ inches long ; the ter- 

 minal one and the upper portion or the whole of the next male, the remain- 

 der female ; the lowest usually shortly stalked, and 1 or 2 of the outer 

 bracts leafy. Glumes dark-brown or black, often with a green midrib. 



In pastures, meadows, and marshes. Common in Europe and Russian 

 Asia, from the Mediterranean to the Arctic regions, and in North America. 

 Fl. spring and summer. The principal forms occuning in Britain, often 

 considered as species, are : — 



a. Rigid tufted C. {C. rigida, Eng. Bot. t. 2047.) A dwarf alpine form,' 

 scarcely 6 inches high, with short, ilat, and rigid leaves. In exposed situ- 

 ations, at great elevations, or at high northern latitudes. 



b. Common tufted C. Usually 1 to 3 feet high, loosely tufted, with narrow 

 leaves, including many intermediate forms passing gradually into the pre- 

 ceding and following varieties. 



c. Densely-tufted C. {C. striata, Eng. Bot. t. 914.) Usually about 2 feet 

 high, more glaucous and tufted than the last variety, with narrow leaves, 

 rather long spikelets, the fruits more distinctly arranged in 8 or 9 rows, 

 and their nerves more strongly marked. Equally common with the last 

 variety, but usually in more open situations. 



d. Water tufted C. (C. aquatilis, Eng. Bot. Suppl. t. 2758.) A very tall, 

 leafy form, with slender spikelets, approaching the acute C. In very wet, 

 rich situations ; hot common in Britain, but said to occur in the Scotch 

 Highlands. 



20. Acute Cares. Carex acuta, Lin. 



(Eng. Bot. t. 580. C. Gibsoni, Bab. Man. ?) 



This may again be a mere luxuriant variety of the tufted C. It attains 



2 or 3 feet, with long, flaccid leaves, and leafy bracts ; the female spikelets 



are often 3 inches long or more ; the glumes all narrow and acute, and the 



fruits themselves narrower than in most varieties of the tufted 0. 



In wet meadows, and marshes, generally distributed over the area of the 

 tufted C, and not uncommon in Britain. Fl. spring and early summer. 



21. Alpine Carex. Carex alpina, Sw. 



(C. Vahlii, Eng. Bot. Suppl. t. 2666.) 



A rather slender species, 6 inches to a foot high, tufted or shortly creep- 

 ing, with short leaves. Spikelets about 3, ovoid, black or dark brown ; the 

 terminal one mixed, hairy, a few male flowers at its base ; the 2 others female, 

 one close to the terminal one, the other a Uttle lower down, on a short stalk, 

 in the axil of a leafy bract. Styles 3-cleft. Fruit green, obtusely triangu- 

 lar, shortly beaked, and projecting beyond the glume. 



On mountain-rocks, in northern Europe and Asia, at high latitudes. In 

 Britain, only in two locaHties in the Clova mountains of Scotland. Fl. 

 summer. 



22. Buxbaum's Carex. Carex Buxbaumii, Wahlenb. 

 (Eng. Bot. Suppl. t. 2885. 0. canescens, Brit. El.) 

 Rootstock shortly creeping, but the stems often densely tufted, 1 to 2 feet 



