926 



THE SEDGE FAMILY. 



spikelet about an inch long ; females 1 

 or 2, at some distance from it, oblong, 

 erect, and nearly sessile, rather more 

 than \ inch long, compact, with small 

 brown glumes. Lower bract leafy, 

 without any sheath. Styles 3-cleft. 

 Fruits small, ovoid or nearly globular, 

 not beaked, downy. In moist meadows, 

 in central and southern Europe, extend- 

 ing eastward to the Caucasus, and north- 

 ward to the Baltic. In Britain, only 

 known from a single locality near Mers- 

 ton, in Wiltshire. Fl. early summer. 



Fig. 1121. 



30. Slender Carex. Carex filiformis, Linn. (Fig. 1122.) 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 904.) 



The habit is near that of the distant C. 

 or of the long-hracted C, but it differs 

 in its downy fruits. Eootstock creep- 

 ing. Stems 1 to 2 feet high, with long, 

 narrow leaves ; the leafy bracts are also 

 long and narrow, almost as in the long- 

 hracted C, but without or almost with- 

 out sheaths. Male spikelets usually 2 

 or even 3, the terminal one often 1£ 

 inches long ; females 1 or 2, remote 

 from them, nearly sessile, 6 to 9 lines 

 long. Styles 3-cleft. Fruits near 

 lines long, ovoid, shortly beaked, anc 

 very downy. 



In wet ditches, and marshes, in north- 

 ern and central Europe, and Russian 

 Asia, from the Arctic regions to cen- 

 tral France and the Alps, and in North 

 America. Not common in Britain, oc- 

 curring chiefly in Scotland, northern 

 FL spring. 



Fig. 1122. 



England, and Ireland. 



