Cdrex.'] 



CVI. CYPERACE^. 



509 



I 



I 



stem which is rough at top. Achene roundish, obtuse, with a slender 

 beak. 



31. C. acuta L. (slender- spiked C.) ; spikelets cylindrical 

 elongated slender, barren 1—3, fertile 3 — 4 more or less remote 

 and barren at top, lower peduncle often attenuate and inter- 

 rupted at the base, sheaths none, bracteas long foliaceous, 

 lower often surpassing the stem with pale or ferruginous elon- 

 gated auricles, fruit oval biconvex nerved green with' rusty 

 stains, beak short entire, glumes dark lanceolate fertile ones 

 acute, sheaths of leaves not filamentose, E. B, t. 580. C. 

 gracilis Curt. 



Moist meadows and wet pastures, frequent. %, 5, — Stems 2 — 3 ft. 



Stem acutely triangular, rough. Leaves broad, flat, sheathing, 



Fertile spikelets often very long, verticlllate at 



Glumes about as long as the 



C. stricta Good. (1792) (not Lam.) : E. B. 



high. 



in 3 rows, green. 



the base, and pendulous in flower. 



fruit, generally longer at the base of the spikelets, and shorter near 



the summit, but variable in that respect. 



r 



32. C. ccBspitdsa L. (tufted Bog C) ; spikelets cylindrical, 

 barren 1 rarely 2, fertile 2 — 3 often approximate erect thickish, 

 lower one very shortly peduncled or sessile, upper often barren 

 at top, sheaths none, lower bractea subfoliaceous abbreviate 

 with large oblong pale auricles, fruit compressed elliptic or 

 oblong closely imbricated nerved generally longer and broader 

 than the black oblong obtuse or lanceolate scale, beak short 

 entire, sheaths of leaves filamentose. Gay in Ann. Sc. Nat. 

 2d ser. xi. p. 194. 

 t. 914. 



Marshes, common. If.. 4 — 6 Stems 2 ft. or more high, densely 



c^espitose. Leaves subconduplicate, narrow, at length revolute on the 



margin, glaucescent, shorter than the firm acutely triangular rough 



stem. Fruit whitish, pulverulent, deciduous, always compressed, in 



8 — 9 rows, — The name, and Ihe remarks of Linnasus (Itei* Scanice, 



p. 207. 241.), appears to refer to this species. He confounded it with 



C. vidgaris Fries, of which a specimen alone exists in his Herbarium. 



Hence Goodenough naturally considered it the true C, ccespitosa L., 



and called the present species C. stricta; a name, however, that had 



been given to an American species by Lamarck three years before 



Goodenough's paper on British Carices was read to the Linna^au 

 Society. ^ 



' Fries still retains the name of stricta for this species, and considers the 

 C* aespitosa li, to be different both from it and from C-vulgaris^ though nearer 

 the latter : he pronounces it a native of this country, on the authority of a specimen 

 from Dr. Greville: his character is nearly as follows: — C. ccespiiosalj.\ spikes 

 erect crowded, barren solitary, fertile subsessile oblong, bracteas with long auricles 

 the lowest only leaflike slender and short, fruit elliptical obtuse biconvex spreading 

 not nerved, equal to or longer than the scale, beak short entire, glumes lanceolate 

 (dark purple with a paler keel), stems slender triquetrous, lower sheaths leafless 

 slightly filamentose, two upper ones with leaves leaves of the sterile shoots broad 

 with a recurved margin. C. pacifica I)rej. 



The plant sent by Dr. Greville was, we believe, our C. aquatilis ; with which, 

 However, this character neither agrees as to the bracteas nor leaves. 



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