556 CTPERAOE.'E. [Carex. 



Man. p. 358. E. B. S. t. 2910. Br. Fl. p. 490. Kunze, Suppl. 

 86, t. 22. Fl. Dan. xiv. t. 2300. 



On margins cif little shaded pools, in woods and thickets, chiefly on a clay soil ; 

 very rave ? Fl. June. If. 



in Quan- copse, near its western extremity, and on the sea-side of the main 

 path, rimonff thick brushwood not far from the shore, in great plenty, June, 1843. 



Root creeping, tufted and fibrous. Culms numerous, erect or inclining, from 

 about 1 to 3 or even 4 feet in length, striated, rigid and slender, but stouter, firmer 

 and much more acutely angular than in C. remota, and especially so at and near 

 the summit below the spike,* where the angles are very sharp and scabrous, and 

 to a much greater distance downwards than in that; in the middle and lower part 

 quite smooth, the faces rather convex, naked for a considerable distance from the 

 top. Leaves linear, bright pale green, the superior ones narrow, as long as or longer 

 than the culms, more usually shorter, about 1 or \^ line in breadth, llattish m at 

 least much less hollowed or concave than those of C. remota, very aculely pdinted 

 and tapeiing, with tiiangular scabrons points, rough along the edges and keel 

 for about half their length downwards, those towards the bottom of the culm very 

 greatly shorter than the su|ierior leaf, the lowest of all even shorter than their 

 sheathinfi bases. Spike terminal, simple, much shorter for the size ol the plant 

 than in C. remota, the rachis straight, triangular, with three very unequal faces, 

 one of them much broader than the two others (hence appearing 2-edgedf), the 

 angles very acute and rough, wiih cartilaginous serratures; spikelets sessile, ovate 

 or ovato-lanceolate, acute, the two lowermost distant considerably from each other, 

 but less so than in C. remota, the third and even sometimes tlie fourth from the 

 bottom tolerably wide apart, and all more or less compound at their base, some- 

 times (though rarely?) simple, their spiculae more or less .spreading; subterminal 

 spikelets approximate, the terminal crowded, smaller and more pointed than the 

 basal, and simple. Bracts subulate, foliaceous, erect, very rough on the margin 

 and keel with trigonous points, the lowermost bract always much longer than the 

 rest and generally overtopping the spike, often quite as long as in C. remuta, the 

 remaining ones often remarkably shorter than in that species, the inferior bracts 

 not reaching the summit of the spike, those still higher reduced to mere subu- 

 late points of their broad plnrae-like bases, and below the crowded terminal spike- 

 lets scarcely distinguishable from the glumes themselves, in these respects 

 agreeing wiih C. divulsa, to which, though sufficiently distinct from both, our 

 present plant and C. remota bear a considerable resemblance. Glumes ovate, 

 acute and even mucronate, membranous, at first greenish and silvery, finally pale 

 lawny, and having a broad, tapering, bright green keel, and a central, pellucid, 

 often roughish nerve, continued to their apex. Staminate florets in all my speci- 

 mens apparently few at the base of each of the lower spikelets, often scarcely any, 

 one or two occasionally in the centre or upper pait of them ; more numerous in 

 the terminal and subterminal spikelets, which are sometimes wholly staminate or 

 nearly so. Anthers bearded or spinulose at the tips. Sti/les 2, long and taper- 

 ing. Perigynes supstipilate, nearly erect (not spreading), ovato-lanceolate, 

 tapering (not rounded) at base, plane in front, slightly com ex at the back, with 

 several prominent ribs, mostly about as long as or longer than the glumes, gra- 

 dually narrowed into the green, rough-edged, rather deeply cloven beak. Nut 

 broadly ovate or ovalo-elliptical, much compressed, smooth, tapering into a short 

 cylindrical point, on which the persistent style is ajiparently articulated ; seldom, 

 it would appear from Kunze's observation and my own, perlected.J 



* In C. remota the culm is quite smooth or very slightly rough only to the 

 lowermost bract, the rachis only of the spike being scabrous, as is truly remarked 

 by Goodenough. 



f One of the angles is often smooth, and so obtuse and indistinct as very 

 nearly to give the rachis a 2-edged form. 



\ [We feel constrained to add that, notwithstanding the minute and able 

 description in the text above, drawn up shortly after the discovery of the plant in 



