136 
TRIANDRIA. MONOGYNIA. Carex. 
Great Common Seg. (Welsh: Hesgen hraff-dywysenog. C. acuta. Lightf. 
E.) C. acuta a. Huds. Banks of rivers, ponds, and ditches, also in 
meadows, where it is much smaller. P. April—May * 
49 . (C. LjEviga'ta. Spikes cylindrical, fertile ones on stalks; sheaths 
very long; glumes pointed; fruit triangular, with a cloven 
beak. 
F. Bof. 1387— Schkuhr. t. z.f 83. 
Much like C. vesicaria not fully grown. It is distinguishable by the long 
stalks of its fertile spikes, and especially by the tunic of the seeds never 
becoming inflated. The remarkable smoothness of its whole stem and 
principal leaves, the upper floral leaves only being rough at the edges, 
and the lower ones merely at the tip. is a ready and permanent difference 
between this plant and all with which it might be confounded. Spikes 
become rusty, not black with age. Their glumes have rough points. 
The barren are one or two; fertile two, three, or four. Sometimes a 
starved spike of perfect flowers has been observed by Mr. J. Sowerby. 
Smooth-stalked Beaked Carex. (Welsh: Hesgen ylfinog lefn. E.) 
In marshes. In a marsh near Glasgow. Mr. Mackay. Near Aberdeen. 
Mr. Beattie. In a boggy thicket near Warley Common, Essex. Mr. E. 
Forster; also in Great Shrub Bush, a wood near Wanstead. (In Tyfry 
demesne, Anglesey, on the side of a deep glen south of the mansion. 
Rev. Hugh Davies. E.) P. May. FI. Brit. E.) 
50. C. paludo'sa. Spikes oblong, rather blunt; scales of the barren 
ones blunt, of the fertile spear-shaped; capsules egg-spear¬ 
shaped, slightly toothed at the end. 
(E. Bot. 807. E.)— Curt. 2S0. 
Root greatly creeping. Straw one or two feet high, unequally three-cor¬ 
nered, angles acute, rough. Leaves nearly half an inch broad, glaucous 
green, red at the base, shorter than the straw, upright, edges and keel 
rough. Barren spikes three, terminal, near together, oblong, blunt, 
three-sided, angles bluntish. Scales brown, oblong, blunt. Fertile spikes 
three, oblong, blunt, but if terminated by barren florets, acute, upright, 
some on short fruit-stalks, florets closely and compactly tiled; scales 
brown, spear-shaped, very acutely pointed, mostly longer than the cap¬ 
sules. Floral-leaf, one to each fertile spike, somewhat sheathing the 
fruit-stalk, seldom expanded at the base. Capsules tiled, generally in 
eight rows, egg-spear-shaped, rather acute, at first entire at the mouth, 
but when ripe showing two very short little teeth. Summits three. Ap¬ 
proaches near to C. riparia, but in that the scales of the barren spike are 
very acute, in this always blunt. In this, the capsules are either entire, 
or only slightly cloven at the end; in that, they have a beak which is 
forked. Gooden. Barren spike one and a half or two inches long ; fertile, 
sometimes three inches or more. Straw not always rough. 
(Lesser Common Carex. Welsh: Hesgen ganolig-dywysenog. E.) 
C. acuta. Curt. Marshes and banks of wet ditches, often found with 
C. riparia. P. April —June. 
51. C. acuta. Summits two; spikes thread-shaped; fertile spikes nu- 
tant whilst in flower, upright when ripe; capsules rather acute, 
entire at the end. 
* (Phryganea aira, a kind of May-fly, frequents the black flower-spikes, and is not 
easily distinguished from them ; by which similitude it often escapes the ravages of 
birds, which pass it by unobserved. E.) 
