CVPERACE/E 299 



male, small. Female spikelets 2 or 3, lower down, on long capillary 

 peduncles, so that they are nodding, distant, and lax. Female 

 spikelet of 5-10 flowers, but the spikelet is very small and short. 

 Bracts shortly leafy, the lower bract having a long sheath. Glumes 

 scarious at the margins. Stigmas 3. Fruit trigonous, not nerved, 

 tapering into a short beak. ^ 



Damp and sandy Alpine pastures, borders of springs and wet 

 rocks in the Alps and sub-Alps, up to 8200 feet at least. July. 

 Often growing with other Carices. 



Distribution. — Alps ; Pyrenees, Caucasus, Arctic Europe and 

 Asia ; North America ; North Britain. 



Carex alba Scop. ' 



A slender species 6-12 inches high, with narrow linear leaves 

 with yellow-brown sheaths. Stem erect, rough at the edge, bearing 

 1-3 female, long-stalked spikelets, the upper one usually extending 

 above the white, male spikelet. Stem-leaves are usually no more 

 than long sheaths surrounding the base of the flower-stalks. Bracts 

 oval, acuminate, whitish, as long as the trigonous, greenish fruit, 

 which is finely nerved and beaked. 



Mountain woods, especially in limestone districts, as, e.g. near 

 Engelberg. May, June. 



Distribution. — Alps, Eastern and Southern France, Cevennes, 

 Corbieres ; Central Europe, N. America. 



Carex ferruginea Scop. (Plate X.) 



Rootstock creeping, stoloniferous. Stems slender, about a foot 

 high, sometimes more. Spikelets dark brown. Lowermost spikelets 

 usually pendent on longish, delicate stalks. Glumes rusty brown. 

 Fruit elliptical, flat in the anterior part, glabrous, with a short 

 bifid beak. 



Shady places in the Alps from about 4000 to 7000 feet. June. 



Distribution. — Alps, Jura, Eastern Pyrenees, mountains of 

 Central Europe. 



Carex flava L. Yellow Sedge. (Plate XXII.) 



Densely tufted and leafy, from 4-12 inches high, and often 

 yellowish in colour, especially the fruiting spikelets. Leaves flat. 

 Terminal spikelet male. Female spikelets 1-3 sessile or shortly 

 stalked and near the male, and often there is one female spikelet 

 much lower down on a longer stalk. Bracts leaf-like and sheathing 

 at the base. Stigmas 3. Fruits ovoid, distinctly nerved, with a 

 prominent beak. 



Damp meadows, peat bogs, etc., in the plains and lower moun- 

 tains. May to July. 



Distribution. — Europe from the Mediterranean to the Arctic 

 regions, Russian Asia, N. America. British. 



