488 THE SEDGE FAMILY. [Kobresia. 



terminal flower of the lateral spikelets are males, consisting of 3 

 stamens within the glumes. Sometimes the lower spikelets are 

 slightly compound or branched. 



In moors and wet places, in the mountains of northern and central 

 Europe, the Caucasus, Greenland, and the Kocky Mountains of America. 

 In Britain, only in a few localities in Argyll and Perthshire and in the 

 north of England. Fl. summer. 



IX. CAREX. CAREX. 



Herbs, mostly perennial, with grass-like leaves, chiefly radical or on 

 the lower part of the stem. Spikelets solitary or several in a terminal 

 spike, or the lower ones distant or stalked, or rarely forming a short 

 compound spike or dense panicle. Flowers unisexual, the stamens and 

 pistils always in separate glumes, either in separate spikelets or in 

 different parts of the same spikelet, which is then called mixed or 

 androgynous. Glumes imbricated all round the axis. Stamens in the 

 males 3, or rarely 2, without bristles or inner scales. Ovary in the 

 females enclosed within a bottle-shaped or inflated sack or utricle, con- 

 tracted at the top, with a small opening through which protrudes the 

 2-cleft or 3-cleft style. This sack persists round the nut, forming a 

 compressed, angular or bladdery outer covering to the seed-like fruit. 

 It is by some botanists considered as a perianth, but its analogy to 

 that organ in more perfect flowers is very doubtful. 



A very large and well-defined genus, widely spread over the northern 

 hemisphere, the mountain-ranges of the tropics, and the extratropical 

 southern hemisphere. The great conformity of the essential characters 

 of the genus renders it difficult to break it up into well-marked sections, 

 and the main divisions are usually taken from the relative position of 

 the male and female spikelets or of their male and female portions. 

 These characters are readily appreciated when the plant is in flower, 

 but when in fruit, a state in which it is necessary to procure it in order 

 to determine the species with accuracy, it requires some attention not 

 to overlook the few male flowers at the base or at the top of the mixed 

 spikes, as, the stamens having fallen away, they then appear like empty 

 glumes. 



C Spikelet solitary and terminal 2 



1 J Spikelets several, the terminal one mixed, the rest female or mixed . . 5 

 "J Spikelets several, the terminal one or more male (rarely with a very few 

 V. female flowers at the base), the others female or mixed 23 



Spikelet solitary, terminal. 



2 / Spikelet wholly male or wholly female 3 



\ Spikelet mixed, male at the top, female at the base . . . . 4 



{Male and female spikelets on different plants .... 1. C. dioica. 



Female spikelet on a long peduncle arising from the base of the male stem. 

 24. C. humilis. 

 {Spikelet above 6 lines long. Stigmas 2. Fruits tapering to a point. 

 2. C. pulicaris. 

 Spikelet above 6 lines long. Stigmas 3. Fruits obovoid, obtuse 3. C. rupestris. 

 Spikelet not above 4 lines. Flowers very few. Stigmas 3. Fruit tapering. 

 4. C. pauciflora. 

 Spikelets several, the terminal one mixed. 

 (Spikelets all sessile in a simple or branched, close or interrupted spike. 



5 < Stigmas 2 6 



( Lower spikelets generally stalked. Stigmas 3 20 



