4 
Carex. | LXXXVIII. CYPERACEZ. 495 
C. cespitosa, and not uncommon in Britain. #71. spring and early 
summer. 
21, C.alpina, Sw. (fig. 1128). Alpine Carex.—A rather slender 
species, 5 inches to a foot high, tufted or shortly creeping, with short 
leaves. Spikelets about 3, ovoid, black or dark brown; the terminal one 
mixed, hairy, a few male flowers at its base ; the 2 others female, one close 
to the terminal one, the other a little lower down, on a short stalk, in the 
axil of a leafy bract. Styles 3-cleft. Fruit green, obtusely triangular, 
shortly beaked, and projecting beyond the glume. C. Vahlii, Schk. 
On mountain-rocks, in northern Europe and Asia. In Britain only in 
two localities on the Clova mountains of Scotland. 7. summer. 
22. ©. Buxbaumii, Wahlenb. (fig. 1129). Buxbaum’s Carex.— Root- 
stock shortly creeping, but the stems often densely tufted, 1 to 2 feet high, 
with rather long leaves. Spikelets usually 3, in a loose spike, the terminal 
one male at the base, the others all female and sessile, or the lowest on a 
very short stalk. Lowest bract, and sometimes the next also, leafy. 
Glumes dark brown, mostly pointed. Styles 3-cleft. Fruits of a pale 
colour, much resembling those of C. cespitosa, usually as long as or longer 
than the glumes, rather obtusely angled, and not beaked. 
In bogs, in northern and Arctic Europe, Asia, and North America, in 
the mountains of central Europe, and in Australia. In Britain, only 
known from Lough Neagh, in Ireland. Fl. July. 
23. ©. atrata, Linn. (fig. 11380). Black Carex.—Stems loosely tufted, 
3 to 13 feet high ; the leaves broad and flaccid, with loose sheaths. Spike- 
lets 3 or 4, black or dark brown, cylindrical, 8 or 9 lines long; the 
terminal one with a few male flowers at the base, or irregularly mixed, not 
all male as in the Arctic C. ustulata, which closely resembles this species 
in other respects; the spikes entirely female or nearly so, stalked, erect 
when young, drooping when ripe. Outer bracts leafy. Glumes rather large, 
pointed. Styles 3-cleft. Fruits dark and shining, flat when young, very 
acutely triangular when ripe, with a short point or beak. 
A common species, in northern, Alpine, and Arctic Europe, Asia, and 
North America. Not unfrequent in some of the Scotch mountains, and 
_ found also, but sparingly, on Snowdon in North Wales, but not in Ireland. 
Fl. summer, rather early. + 
24, C. humilis, Leyss. (fig. 1181). Dwarf Carex.—Tufts short and 
very dense, with narrow, radical leaves, broadly sheathing at their base, 
and considerably longer than the flower-stems. These are from 3 to 5 
inches high, with a terminal male spikelet about 9 lines long, and 3 or 4 
much smaller female ones, placed at intervals along the stem almost from 
its base, and, although stalked, scarcely protruding from the white scarious 
sheaths of the leafless bracts; the glumes of both the male and female 
spikelets are also scarious on the edges. Styles long and 3-cleft. Fruits 
hee obtuse, more or less ribbed, and slightly downy. C. clandestina, 
ood. 
On downs and stony wastes, chiefly in limestone districts, in central and 
southern Europe, extending eastward far into south Russian Asia, and 
northwards into most of the calcareous districts of France and Germany. 
In Britain, only in Wilts, Somerset, Gloucester, Hereford, Dorset, and 
Hampshire courties. JV. spring. 
