Carex.] cyperace.e. 563 



particularly amongst reeds at tlie edge of a copse on the E. bank, a few hundred 

 yards below the mill, and near a cottage. 



Herb of a pale glaucous-green and remarkably glabrous. Root moderately 

 creeping, with many pale reddish fibres. Culms numerous, erect, 12 — 20 inches 

 high, bluntly triangular, solid, rigid, very smooth and shining. Leaves shorter 

 than the culm (except those embracing the base of the latter, which often equal 

 or exceed them in length, Gonden.), narrow, linear, taperinjj-, channelled, rigid 

 and fleshy, quite smooth excepting within an inch or two of their acutely keeled 

 tips, and often scarcely even there. Sheaths rather long and close, those of the 

 root-leaves yellowish or brownish. Staminate spike on a very short stalk at the 

 base of one of the two uppermost pistillate spikes, linear, acute, about an inch 

 long, often a little compound below, or accompanied by a distinct but much 

 smaller spike at its base, and which is sometimes partly fertile ; scales broad, ob- 

 tuse, chestnut-brown, with a paler dorsal rib. Pistillate spikes 3, approximate, 

 the two upper very close together, sessile or very nearly so, with scarcely any 

 sheaths; lower one not an inch at most below the others, its short slalk quite 

 concealed by the more or less elongated sheath, terminating, like that of the spike 

 next above it, in an extremely long spreading or deflexed bract, in all respects 

 similar to the leaves themselves. Scales of the fertile spikes like those of the bar- 

 ren, but pointed and even partly awned, with a broader, green, central line. Pe- 

 rigyne quite sessile, spreading, longer than the glumes, gibbous or tumid on both 

 faces, minutely striato-punctate, with a rather strong greenish rib along the some- 

 what acute lateral margin, and tapering to a short, broad, notched rather than 

 bifid, perfectly smooth beak. Seed dotted, acutely triquetrous. 



21. C. distans, L. Loose Carex. "Barren spikelets 1 — 2 on 

 long stalks with obtuse scales, fertile 2 — 3 remote erect oblong 

 stalked, the lower stalks about twice longer than the sheathing 

 bracteas, upper ones included, glumes mucronate, fruit ovate tri- 

 quetrous equally ribbed pellucidlj'- punctate smooth or rough at 

 the upper margins and at the edges of the narrow short bifid 

 beak." — 5r. Ft. p. 498. Boott. E. B. t 1334. Host. Gram. 

 Aust. i. 57, t. 77 ? Fl. Dan. xiv. t. 2434. 



In meadows and muddy or marshy ground near the sea; occasionally. Fl. 

 May, June. i^r. July. if.. 



E. Med. — Plentifully on the beach, where a small brook discharges itself into 

 the sea, about half a mile W. of St. Catherine's point, 1842. [Near the quay at 

 Blading, A. G. More, Esq., Edrs.] 



W. Med. — On a piece of moist ground near the shore in Gurnet bay. Creek 

 of the Medina by Medham brickfield. Above the shore just beyond Norton going 

 westward, sparingly. By the Yar below Freshwater bridge, and abundantly at 

 Fresihwater gate, especially in the second meadow from the shore. Plentifully in 

 a damp meadow nearly in the line betwixt Tapnell and Wilmingham farms, 1844. 

 In the bog at the source of the Yar, D. Turner, Esq., B. T. W. (marsh at Easton). 



Root creeping and densely tufted with whitish fibres, more so, I think, than iu 

 C. fulva, the whole plant in general larger and stouter. Culms erect, a foot to 

 2 or 2J feet high, solid, bluntly triangular, smooth and shining throughout or 

 without any perceptible roughness on or below the sheaths as in C. fulva. Leaves 

 as in C. fulva, but 1 think somewhat less rigid, those on the stem rather longer 

 and more lax. Sheaths in all respects similar to those of that species. Stami- 

 nate spike quite like that of C. fulva, and often with a smaller or subsidiary one 

 beneath it. Pistillate spilces usually 3, sometimes only 2, very remote, especially 

 the lowermost; the highest, and indeed occasionally those beneath it, producing 

 staminate florets in their upper part, usually, from the more numerous florets, 

 more elongated than those of C. fulva, but in this respect very variable. Glumes 

 very like those of C. fulva in shape, but much less acuminate' partly almost obtuse, 

 partly submucronate, with ahroader field of green on the back, and quite destitute 



