498 THE SEDGE FAMILY. [ Carex. 
Very common in brackish marshes round the coasts of Europe, extending 
to the Baltic, temperate Asia, and North and South America. It is 
general also round the British Isles. FU. early summer. 
34, C. flava, Linn. (fig. 1141). Yellow Carex.—Usually densely 
tufted and leafy, seldom attaining a foot in height, and acquiring frequently 
a yellowish hue, especially the fruiting spikelets. Leaves flat. Male 
terminal spikelet 6 to 9 lines long. Females 1, 2, or 3, sessile or shortly 
stalked and very near the male, and often one much lower down on a 
longer stalk; all erect, ovoid or oblong, or when ripe nearly globular. 
Bracts all leafy and sheathing at the base. Styles 3-cleft. Fruits ovoid, 
distinctly nerved, with a prominent beak, always very spreading or re- 
flexed. } : 
In turfy bogs and marshy pastures, very common in Europe and tem- 
perate Asia, from the Mediterranean to the Arctic regions, and in North 
America. Generally diffused over Britain. FU. spring and summer. It 
varies much in the distance of the lower spikelets from the upper ones, 
and in the size of the fruits; but the small-fruited forms with short beaks 
(C. Gderi, Ehrh.) are very inconstant in their characters. 
35. ©. distans, Linn. (fig. 1142). Distant Carex.—Stems more or 
less tufted, slender, 1 to 2 feet high, with flat but rather narrow leaves, 
much shorter than the stem. Spikelets few and far apart; the terminal 
one male (sometimes with a small one close under it), the others female, 
oblong-cylindrical, 3 to 1 inch long, stalked, but often appearing sessile 
from the stalks being enclosed in the long sheaths of the leafy bracts. 
Glumes brown. Styles 3-cleft. Fruits usually rather dark-green, but 
sometimes yellowish, erect, rather strongly nerved or ribbed, tapering into 
a rather long beak. 
In marshes and wet moors, or sometimes in drier pastures, especially 
near the sea, in Europe and western Asia, from the Mediterranean to 
Scandinavia, and in North America, although not an Arctic plant. Com- 
mon in Britain. #7. summer. It varies much in the length of the stalks 
of the lower spikelets and in the prominence of the ribs of the fruit. 
The following are the principal varieties, which are often considered as 
species :— 
ue O. fulua, Good., with short, pale-coloured spikelets, and a rather long 
beak to the fruit. 
b. OC. depauperata, Good., with only 4 or 5 fruits to the spikelet, but 
each one larger, somewhat inflated, with a very long beak. [Very rare 
and confined to dry woods from Kent to Somerset. | 
ce. C. binervis, Sm., with darker spikelets and more angular fruits. | 
d. C. levigata, Sm., like the last, but the slender green spikelets often 
1 to 13 inches long, much like those of C. sylvatica, but erect, not 
drooping. 
36. C. punctata, Good. (fig. 1148). Dotted Carex.—Very much like 
the common seacoast form of C. distans, of which it may be a mere 
variety ; but the fruits appear to be entirely without longitudinal ribs, 
except the 3 angles, which are slightly prominent. 
ed 
Marshy places in Europe westward of Italy, extending into Norway. 
In Britain itis local and confined to Wales and the southern half of Eng- 
land, the south of Ireland, and Kirkcudbright in Scotland, Fl. summer, 
