Carex.] cypekace-^e. 565 



French authors, that the true C.futva, Gooden. Trans, of Linn. Soc,, is a sterile 

 form of C. speirostackija. He sciys: — " I can find no ripe perigynia in C.fulva; 

 and, independently of this, the characters distinguishinij the two are .shadowy. 

 C.fulva as a sterile form develops its leaves and liriicts more, and assumes a 

 firmer habit and greener colour. C. speirosiachya is the common plant and C. 

 fulya rarer, but I have both from Yorkshire. I do not think Smith well distin- 

 guished them, judging from his herbarium." In another letter Dr. Boott ob- 

 serves: — "He (Goodenouij;h) speaks of capsules, but says nothing of achenia. 

 Smith says it is roundish, and that of C. speiroslaehya obovate ; but I am sure 

 that Sir James described C.fulva from specimens of C. speirostachya, judging 

 from Beattie's specimens in herb. Sm. ; and if you analyze his two descriptions 

 you will find no real specific differences." Dr. B. finds, on comparing very nu- 

 merous sets of specimens, the relative number of stamiuate and pistillate spikes 

 to be nearly the same in both forms. 



This species is very closely allied to C.distans, of which I cannot help suspect- 

 ing the latter may be only a maritime variety. 



23. G. binervis, Sm. Green-ribbed Sedge. " Barren spikelet 

 solitary with obtuse scales, fertile 3 — 5, the upper ones sometimes 

 subapproximate, the lower remote erect cylindrical often elon- 

 gated bearing barren flowers in their upper half and some of them 

 occasionally compound at the base, the lower stalks longer than 

 the sheathing bracteas, glumes mucronate, fruit ovato -triquetrous 

 with a smooth rather broad bifid beak and two principal green 

 submarginal nerves on the outer surface, beak broad bifid." — Br. 

 Fl. p. 499. Boott. E. B. t. 1235. 



In dry woods and on heaths; not uncommon. i<7. May, June. i^r. July. !(.. 



E. Med. — Plentiful in a wood called New copse, between Ryde and Wootton 

 bridge, 1838. Common at Apse castle, in the dell called Tinker's Hole. On 

 Briddlesford heath. Plentiful on Bleak down. Bog at Blackpan, Dr. Bell- 

 Sailer .' 



Root like that of C. Isevigata, knotty, fibrous and creeping. Culm as in that 

 and about the same length, rough, too, like it, beneath the sterile spike. Leaves 

 scarcely above half the width of those of C. laevigata and much longer, of a 

 deeper green, much shorter than the culm, rigid, erect, sharply keeled and chan- 

 nelled, gradually tapering into long, rough and very acute points. Shealhs, as in 

 the next, shorter than the peduncles, close and smooth. Spikes shorter and much 

 less remote than in C. laevigata, the upper fertile ones in particular subapproxi- 

 mate, with respect to one another as well as to the solitary sterile one. Statni- 

 r>ate spike suUtsiry, terminal, erect, blunt, triquetrous, acute, often a little com- 

 pound at the base, and that sometimes with the addition of a few fertile flowers ; 

 its glumes broadly ovate, rounded, sometimes with a short muoro, fuscous, with a 

 green or whitish keel bordered with dark brown, sometimes of a uniform light brown 

 or fuscous colour, the lowermost glume very large and supplying the place of a 

 bract. Anthers straw-yellow, their tips spinulose or bristly, much more so than 

 in the next. Pistillate spikes 3 or 4, frequently a little compound at the base, 

 which is rarely if ever the case in C. laevigata, and sometimes bearing a few ste- 

 rile florets at iheir summit, the two uppermost usually approximate to each other 

 and to the sterile spike, the third at .some distance beneath them, the fourth when 

 present very remote ; at first, as in C. laevigata, slender and erect, at length, as in 

 that species, becoming lax, drooping or pendulous ; their peduncles, as in C. laevi- 

 gata, smooth and filiform, but rather shorter, the two upper, as in this last, much 

 abbreviated. Glumes similar to those of the barren spike in colour, but more 

 ovate or less rounded, ending for the most part in spinulose points, of various 

 lengths on the same spike, often obsolete or quite wanting, always shorter than in 

 C. laevigata, in which the entire glumes are more attenuated upwards, the spikes 

 themselves being much longer and slenderer in proportion than in the present 



