550 CYPEEACE.E. [Carex- 



to me, growing sparingly in one spot, Frederick Townsend, Esq., June 17th, 

 1844.* 



" ** Androgynous."- — Bab. Man. 



2. C. pulicaris, L. Flea Sedge. " Spikelet simple, upper half 

 with barren flowers, fruit lax oblong-lanceolate acuminate reflexed, 

 stigmas 2."— Br. Fl. p. 487. E. B. t. 1051. Host. Gram. Aust. iv. 

 42, t. 75. 



In bogs and on wet heaths and commons ; not unfrequent. Fl. May, June. 



U- 



E. Med. — Marshy heathy ground at ihe back of the great fir-plantation in 

 Long lane, near Arreton. Wet places on Lake common. On Bleak down. 

 Heath near Smallgains farm. Bog at Blackpan, Dr. BellSilter ! 



W. Med. — Frequent at Freshwater gale. Upper part of Col well heath, abun- 

 dantly. Bog just below Coctleton farm. Miss G. Kilderbee. 



A small, rigid, slender plant, from 3 — 10 or 12 inches high. Root fibrous. Stem 

 erector inclining, angular and furrowed, quite smooth like the rest of the plant, naked 

 for the greater part of ils length. Leaves much shorter than the culm, mostly radi- 

 cal, filiform, grooved, resembling those of a Scirpus, with long brown sheaths. 

 Spike solitary, terminal, about an inch long. Scales of the pistillate florets deci- 

 duous in fruit. Styles deciduous. Periyyne elliptic-lanceolate, acuminate, entire 

 at the point, at length strongly deflexed, dark shining brown or puce-colour, from 

 whence, and from the shape, the name of the species is derived. Seed ovato- 

 oblong, compressed, smooth and shining, with a short blunt point. 



" ii. Spikelets androgynous in a compound continuous or interrupted spike. 



Stigmas 2. 



" * Spikelets sterile at the end. 



" f Root creeping." — Bab. Man. 



3. C. divisa, Huds. Bracteated Marsh Sedge. " Spikelets 

 crowded into a somewhat ovate head, the lower ones simple or 

 compound with a leafy erect bractea at their base, glumes with 

 an excurrent midrib, fruit roundish-ovate conuex on one side 

 slightly concave on the other, beak acutely bifid with finely ser- 

 rated edges, stem roughish at the summit." — Br. Fl. p. 492. E. 

 iJ. t. 1096. Curt. Br. Entom. xv. tab. et fol. 706. 



In meadows and pastures near the sea, and in salt-marshes ; not uncommon. 

 Fl. April — June. !(.. 



E. Med. — Marshy meadows behind the Dover at Byde, in a part of which it 

 constitutes a large proportion of the herbage. Plentiful and very fine at the N. 

 of the Wootton river. In a meadow behind Quarr abbey, dividing Quarr copse 

 from Shore copse, 1842. Abundantly in the meadows between Springfield and 

 Nettlestone point, 1842. At Bembridge, by the roadside opposite the blacksmith's 

 shop at Hillway, Dr. Bell-Sailer. 



W. Med. — By creeks of the Medina above W. Cowes, frequent. Abundantly 

 in a meadow between Yarmouth and Thorley, on the left-hand of the little bridge ; 

 also along the shore a little E. of Yarmouth. Gurnet bay, 1837. Abundant in 

 all the marsh-meadows behind Gurnet bay, 1843. Isle of Wight, Rev. G. E. 

 Smith .'.'.' 



Root very large for so slender a plant, tough, woody, creeping extensively. 



* [From a remark made by the author in the ' Phytologist ' (iii. p. 1034), it 

 appears that he subsequently had some misgivings that the plant found in the 

 above station was C. pulicaris, and not G. dioica. — Edrs^ 



