922 



THE SEDGE FAMILY. 



22. 



Buxbaum's Carex. Carex Buxbaumii, Wahlenb. 

 (Fig. 1114.) 

 (Eng. Bot. Suppl. t. 2885. C. canes cens, Brit. Fl.) 



Bootstock shortly creeping, but the 

 stems often densely tufted, 1 to 2 feet 

 high, with rather long leaves. Spike- 

 lets usually 4, in a loose spike, the ter- 

 minal 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 re- 

 sembling those of the tufted C, usually 

 as long as or longer than the glumes, 

 rather obtusely angled, and not beaked. 



In bogs, in northern and Arctic Eu- 

 rope, and Russian Asia, and North Ame- 

 rica, and in the mountains of central 

 Europe. In Britain, only known from 

 an island in Lough Neagh, in Ireland. 

 Fl. July. 



Fig. 1114. 



23. Black Carex. Carex atrata, Linn. (Fig. 1115.) 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 2044.) 



Stems loosely tufted, \ to \\ feet high ; 

 the leaves broad and flaccid, with loose 

 sheaths. Spikelets 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 other spikes entirely female 

 or nearly so, stalked, erect when young, 

 drooping when ripe. Outer bract 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 alpine species, in northern 



and Arctic Europe, Asia, and North 



America, and in the great mountain- 



Fio-. 1115. ranges of central Europe and Asia. Not 



