CVPERACE/K. 



931 



In meadows and moist pastures, one 

 of the commonest species throughout 

 Europe and Russian Asia, occurring 

 also in JN~orth America. Common in 

 Britain. Fl. early summer. An alpine 

 variety, not uncommon in high northern 

 latitudes, and at considerable elevations 

 in the mountains of central Europe, with 

 the sheaths of the bracts looser, the 

 spikelets darker-coloured and few- 

 flowered, and the fruits more decidedly 

 tapering into a beak, has been distin- 

 guished as a species, under the name of 

 C vaginata (C. Mieliehoferi, Eng. Bot. 

 t. 2293, C.phceostachya, Suppl. t. 2731). 

 It occurs in some of the Highlands of 

 Scotland. 



38. Capillary Carex. Carex capillaris, Linn. (Fig. 1130.) 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 2069.) 



Stems slender, densely tufted, with- 

 out creeping runners, 3 or 4 to 8 or 9 

 inches high, longer than the leaves. Ter- 

 minal spikelets male, and small. Female 

 spikelets 2 or 3, much lower down, but 

 on long, thread-like peduncles, so as 

 sometimes to exceed the male, of a ra- 

 ther pale colour, loose-flowered, but 

 seldom 6 lines long. Bracts shortly 

 leafy, the lower one with a rather long 

 sheath. Grlumes very scarious on the 

 edges. Styles 3-cleft. Fruits 10 or 12 

 in each spikelet, tapering into a pointed 

 beak. 



In alpine meadows, and on moist 

 rocks, in northern and Arctic Europe 

 and Asia, in the high ranges of central 

 and southern Europe to the Caucasus, and in North America. Fre- 

 quent in the Scotch Highlands. Fl. summer. 



89. Mud Carex. Carex limosa, Linn. (Fig. 1131.) 



(Eng. Bot. t. 2043, and C. irrigua, Suppl. t. 2895.) 

 "Rootstock creeping. Stem slender, from 3 inches to a foot high, 



Fig. 1130. 



