Carex.] cyperace.e. 553 



of several sessile spikelels, terminating the stem. Perij/yne from tawny yellow to 

 daik brown when ripe, sessile or very briefly slipitale, ovato-acuminate, much 

 compressed, plano-convex, with about 6 or 7 ribs on each face, of which the three 

 central ones only are continued to the beak, the rest much shorter: a single stout 

 rib edged with green runs along the very acute margin, and terminates in the 

 sharp brownish points of the rather long, gradually tapered and pretty deeply 

 notched beak, linely serrulate on its edges. Seed yellowish, broadly ovato-ellip- 

 lical, much compressed and 2-edged, on a short slalk, minutely dotted and tipped 

 with the base of the style. 



Very closely allied to this is the C. stipata, Muhl. (C. vvlpinoidea, Mx.), of N. 

 America, which differs in its softer stems, so deeply and acutely triquetrous as 

 scarcely to present any central core or cavity at the junction of the three flat thin 

 wings or angles ; in its perigynes, which are more convex at the back, very abrupt 

 and flat at the base, which is usually depressed in the centre and on slenderer stipes ; 

 in the much longer beak ; and, lastly, according to Schkuhr, in having the sheaths 

 of the leaves transversely striated, which is not the case, according to the same 

 authority, in C. milpina. The seed iu both are very similar. 



7. C. paniculata, L. Great Paniclecl Sedge. " Spike panicled 

 consisting of ovate spikelets arranged on elongated diverging 

 branches of a common axis, fruit deltoid or subreniform plano- 

 convex faintly many-nerved margined above and ending in an 

 acuminate winged serrated bidentate beak, stem triquetrous with 

 the angles very sharp and scabrous and the sides flat." — iJr„ FL 

 p. 490. E. B. t. 1064. Host. Gram. Aust. i. 44, t. 58. 



B. Smaller, in scattered simple tufts. Panicle close, with short branches.* 



In wet boggy woods, thickets, willow-beds and watery meadows; common. 

 FL April — June. If. 



E. Med. — Plentiful in a wood a little way out of Ryde, near the junction of 

 the road to Ashey and Haven street. Abundant in all the wet thickets about 

 Alverston, Newchurch. Apse-heath withy-bed. 



W. Med.— Mmsh on Colwell heath, B. T. W. 



0. Bog below the bank between Hartsash and Knighton farm, a little above 

 Knighton Lower mill, in plenty, 1845. On boggy meadow-ground near the 

 Wilderness. 



Perigynes spreadingand giving abrislly aspect to thespike, tawny brown, substi- 

 pitate, broadly ovate and somewhat cordate at the base, plano-convex, gibbous at 

 the back, rather longer than the glumes, many- and (often but not always) ob- 

 scurely ribbed, the ribs usually very distinct on both sides at the base, but vanish- 

 ing in their course upwards; rather abruptly tapering into a moderately long 

 cloven beak, having a spinulose, ciliated, winged margin decurrent to a consider- 

 able distance along the exterior angles of the fruit. Nut greenish yellow, broadly 

 ovate, obtuse, abruptly attenuated below, flatly triquetrous, smooth, crowned with 

 the style and its enlarged base. 



The dense tufted roots constitute large conical mounds, often several feet in 

 height, used in some parts of England for making hassocks, and serving like 

 stepping-stones to enable the botanist to traverse the boggy thickets without wet- 

 ting his feet. The long tough culms are employed in this island as a cheap 

 though inferior substitute for straw for thatching ricks, &c. 



8. C. muricata, L. Greater Prickly Sedge. " Spike oblong of 

 4 — 6 compact or approximate simple spikelets with brownish 

 ovate pointed scales, fruit ovato-acuminate spreading its acute 



* [For some interesting and valuable observations, by which it appears that our 

 author considered this form to be C. Pseudo-paradoxa of Gibson and C. teretius- 

 cula of Babington, vide Phytol. iii. p. 1040. — Edrs.^ 



4b 



