Carex.y CYPERACEa: 571 



having a just claim to preference on the score of priority, is nevertheless inadmis- 

 sible, as being of Greek derivation. 



30. C Pseudo-cyperus,'L. Bastard Cyperus Sedge. "Barren 

 spikelets solitary, fertile 3 — 6 densely flowered cylindrical ui^on 

 long foot-stalks drooinng, bracteas very leafy, lowermost some- 

 times sheathing, the others without sheaths, glumes setaceous 

 scabrous, fruit oblong very much acuminate ribbed, beak long 

 deeply cloven." — Br. Fl. p. 502. E. B. t. 242. Host. Gran. 

 Aust. i. 63, t. 85 (bona). 



In wet swampy thickets, and by the margins of pools and ditches, &c. ; not 

 very common. Fl. May, June. If.. 



E. Med. — A single tuft in tjiiarr copse, 1844. Marsh-ditch between Yar- 

 bridge and Yaverland, under a copse, in some plenty, 1840. In dilches nearly 

 at the back of Lower Morton farm, 184.3. In a pond between Woottou bridge 

 and King's quay. Boggy spots by the little stream that descends to the sea be- 

 tween Niton and Blackgang, in some abundance, particularly in a swampy tract 

 of ground, partly enclosed by a stone fence, near the shore, iu great plenty, and 

 growing in large clumps, 1841. In a wood near Little Smallbrook farm, about a 

 mile from Ryde, Rev. G. E. Smith, 1838 !!! 



W. Med. — In one or two places in the marsh at Freshwater gate, 1839, 



A large and beautiful species, known at once from all our other Sedges by the 

 very long, extremely slender, almost acicular glumes both of the barren and fer- 

 tile spikes. Root tufted, with many stout fibres. Culms numerous, erect, leafy, 

 2 — 3 feet high, solid, sharply triquetrous, with depressed faces, the angles pecu- 

 liarly acute and rough for some distance below the summits. Leaves numerous, 

 bright grass-green, scarcely if at all paler beneath, sharply keeled and channelled, 

 striated, the longitudinal intercellular spaces* jointed, with numerous transverse 

 septa; whitish and often filamentous at the base, with thin membranous edges, 

 very rough above on the margins and keel, and capable of cutting severely incau- 

 tiously handled ; those at the root very long and generally withered ; lower sten). 

 leaves very short, but lengthening as they rise, the upper ones greatly overtopping 

 the culm ; all with long, close, smooth sheaths, that are remarkably membranous 

 and transparent at the back,f except that of the uppermost stem-leaf, which is of 

 the same texture all round, and often extremely shortened ; those of the very long 

 leafy bracts nearly or quite obsolete. Spikes at first erect or inclining, afterwards 

 drooping and pendulous, on very long, filiform, compressed, green-ribbed and 

 scabrous peduncles ; very slender, acute, linear and triquetrous in flower, in which 

 early state the anthers chiefly distinguish solitary and terminal staminate from the 

 three, four or five rather paler or greener pistillate spikes, the lowermost of which 

 is usually considerably remote from the rest and on a much longer stalk, subtended 

 by a far longer and broader bract overtopping all those above it; when in fruit 

 the pistillate spikes become much thicker, cylindrical, obtuse and pendulous. 

 Glumes of the staminate and pistillate spikes nearly similar, erect; those of the 

 former with pale tawny membranous margins, reaching to above half their length, 

 and tapering off into the long, very slender, subulate, spinous points; those of the 

 latter narrower, pale green, with extremely slender, acicular, very rough points ; 

 their basal margins short, white and scarcely tapering; sometimes the glumes of 

 all the spikes are pale green. Anthers pale yellow, with simply acute (not spi- 

 nous) points. Perigynes yellowish when ripe, quite smooth, densely crowded into 

 cylindrical, elegantly drooping, bristly spikes, stipitate, spreading horizontally, 

 ovato-lanceolate, subtriquetrous, convex and a little inflated at the back, strongly 



* Air-cells? These spaces, which are quite empty, separate the longitudinal 

 bundle of vessels destined to transmit the natural juices of the leaf. 



t From a prolongation of the membranous adnate ligule, in that part unaccoiflr 

 paiiied by the commou leafy tissue. 



