CHAP. I. 
GENERIC AND SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 
513 
‘‘ Barren flowers numerous, aggregate, in one, or more, 
oblong, dense catkins; their scales imbricated every way. 
Calyx a single, lanceolate, undivided, permanent scale to each 
floret. Corolla none. Filaments 3, rarely fewer, capillary, 
erect or drooping, longer than the scales. Anthers vertical, 
long, linear, of 2 cells. 
“ Fertile flowers numerous, in the same, or more usually in 
a different, catkin^ very rarely on a separate plant. Calyx as 
in the barren flower. Corolla a single, hollow, compressed, 
ribbed, often angular, permanent glume to each floret; con- 
tracted, mostly cloven, and often elongated at the extremity. 
Germen superior, roundish ; with three, rarely but two, 
angles, very smooth. Style one, terminal, cylindrical, short. 
Stigmas three, more rarely two only, awl-shaped, long, 
tapering, downy, deciduous. Seed the shape of the germen, 
with unequal angles, loosely coated with the enlarged, either 
hardened or membranous, permanent corolla, both together 
constituting the fruit.” 
This character is carefully written, but full of inaccurate 
and confused applications of terms. The term catkin should 
be spike ; for a catkin is deciduous, a spike persistent : and 
the inflorescence in Carex is of the latter kind. In the next 
place, what is called the calyx is a bract. What is called the 
corolla of the fertile flowers is two confluent bracts; and, 
therefore, not a single glume, but a double one. Finally, 
what is called the seed is the pericarp : in the young state 
it is called the germen, which is equivalent to ovary ; but, 
by the time the ovary is ripe, it is metamorphosed into a 
seed. 
Inaccuracies of this kind not only disfigure botanical writ- 
ings, but very often lead the inexperienced botanist into 
errors and misconceptions. 
In constructing essential and differential characters, it is 
customary to use the nominative case for genera and orders, 
and the ablative for species ; but in English the nominative 
only is employed in both cases. 
