cyperacej:. 



921 



20. Acute Carex. Carex acuta, Linn. (Fig. 1112.) 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 580. C. Gihsoni, Bab. Man. ?) 



This may again be a mere luxuriant 

 variety of the tufted C. It attains 2 or 

 3 feet, with long, flaccid leaves, and 

 leafy bracts ; the female spikelets are 

 often 3 inches long or more ; the glumes 

 all narrow and acute, and the fruits them- 

 selves narrower than in most varieties 

 of the tufted C. 



In wet meadows, and marshes, gene- 

 rally distributed over the area of the 

 tufted C, and not uncommon in Britain. 

 Fl. spring and early summer. 



Fig. 1112. 



21. Alpine Carex. Carex alpina, Sw. (Fig. 1113.) 

 (G Vahlii, Eng. Bot. Suppl. t. 2666.) 



A rather slender species, 6 inches to 

 a foot high, tufted or shortly creeping, 

 with short leaves. Spikelets about 3, 

 ovoid, black or dark-brown ; the termi- 

 nal 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, andprojectingbeyond the glume. 



On mountain-rocks, in northern Eu- 

 rope and Asia, at high latitudes. In 

 Britain, only in two localities in the 

 Clova mountains of Scotland. Fl. 

 summer. 



VOL. II. 



Fig. 1113. 



2 K 



