'>5-- MONOECIA TRIANDRIA, 



Vernal Carex. Jnglis, 

 - In dry mountainous paflures. IX. IV. 



I he ftalk is commonly four inches high, and IcI- 



dom exceeds fix, flender and filiform : the leaves 



are fmooth, and not fliarp to the touch : the 



male fpike is fufcous, of an oval or elliptic 



, • ., form, about half an inch long, and mod taper 



at the bafc : the filaments are like white hairs : 



the Anther^ are yellow and linear : the female 



fpikes are fhort, oval, fefTile, and confift: of but 



few howers : oftentimes there is only one placed 



at the bafe of the male, but more generally two 



contiguous to each other, on different fides of 



the ftalk, and fometimes three, the lowermoft 



fiibtfnded b) a hraulea as long or longer than 



t\\Q fpicula : the fcales are fufcous and fmooth: 



the capfules oval, gibbous, when viewed through 



a lens pubefcent, and when ripe of a dark brown 



or blackifii colour. It flowers in the bemnnins: 



of April, the firft of all the genus. 



' This is the fame plant which Mr. Hudfon^ in his 



Flor. Ang. p. 351, calls Q. faxatiUsy of which 



vid. fig. Oed, Dan. t- 159. a much llronger and 



■ larger plant than ours, with black cnpfules: the 



fmallnefs of our plant, its filiform ftalk, fmooth 



" ; '.r:7 s, early floefcence, but above all the pu- 



' '■ I" -e of the capfules, determined us to place 



;,': '■..:-, '^e C- monlana Lin- 



CAREK 



