84 
ILLUSTRATIONS OP THE GENUS CAREX. 
gatis, laxis, ambitu lanceolatis; spiculis apice longe attenuato- 
masculis ; perigyniis olivaceis vel atro-purpureis.-—Java, E. 
Nepal, Khasia. 
2. Infiorescentia simpliore ; perigyniis ovalibus, minus tur- 
gidis, ssepe oblique adscendentibus, rostro plus minus longo ; 
squamis nunc lanceolatis, acutis.—Myong Valley, E. Nepal, 
Kbasia [Hooker). 
3. Infiorescentia densissima; perigyniis globosis, lutescen- 
tibus, plus minus vivide rubro-tinctis, transversim corrugatis, 
demum atro-purpureis.—Kbasia, China. 
4. Infiorescentia densissima ; perigyniis oblongis, (imma- 
turis) olivaceis, angulatis, demum atro-purpureis, inflatis, 
teretibus; nervis obsoletis, lucidis; spiculis ssepe apice breve 
masculis; ramis spicarum nunc bracteolis longis setaceis suf- 
fultis.-—Khasia, Bombay, Nilgbiri. 
It would be evident to any one, on examining a large suite of 
specimens of this noble and beautiful species, that these varieties 
insensibly blend together, there being nothing of a fixed or de¬ 
terminate character in the inflorescence or in the form or colour 
of the perigynium. I believe the olive-colour to depend on im¬ 
maturity or on locality. It may be observed on, some spikes, the 
general hue of which is red or purple, and in all cases the eventual 
colour in old specimens is a dark lustrous purple. The most 
striking contrast is in the var. 3, the colour of which in Dr. 
Hooker’s specimens is a bright red, or as Gaudichaud says, “ d’un 
rouge de corail,” but this colour is more or less mixed with yellow. 
In Griffith’s specimens it is nearly all yellow, or in older ones 
dark-purple. Sir George Staunton’s specimens from China are 
like Dr. Hooker’s, the form of the perigynium in all being globular, 
with transverse corrugations; but in Gaudichaud’s, which have 
these corrugations, the form is oblong, and the colour a dark-purple. 
In Dr. Horsfield’s Java specimen, Tab. CCXXXIV., the in¬ 
florescence is lax throughout, like that of G. myosurus , while in 
some of Dr. Hooker’s and Griffith’s this laxity is principally in 
the lower spikes. I have other specimens, in a young state, from 
Dr. Horsfield, from Java, with a very dense composite inflo¬ 
rescence; and M. Spach tells me that specimens from Java col¬ 
lected by Goering and preserved in the Paris Herbarium, are 
equally dense, but the perigynia, not fully mature, are olivaceous, 
while Dr. Horsfield’s, fully mature, are of a dark purple. In var. 2 
the perigynia on some of Dr. Hooker’s specimens are only sub- 
turgid, and not gibbose, but in others from the same locality, 
“ Myong Valley, E. Nepal,” they are more inflated and gibbous, 
often divergent, with a deflexed rostrum. 
There is nothing constant in the length or breadth of the male 
apex of the spiculee. In a young state it is shorter and broader 
from the loose imbrication of the squamse, but it always contracts, 
and I suspect elongates by age. But. in the same spike, even in 
age, it varies in length. In all the forms the colour of the squa¬ 
mae is of a ferruginous purple, with broad hyaline margins, but 
eventually the colour entirely fades away. The form is generally 
broadly ovate and obtuse, rarely lanceolate and acute, with a 
longer or shorter cuspidation. 
O. baccans is distinguished from O. myosurus by the inflated, 
coloured, horizontally divergent perigynium, with its deflexed 
rostrum, and in well-marked specimens by its erect, rigid, compact 
inflorescence. 
Nees founded it on Dr. Wight’s specimen n. 1912, which I have 
seen in Herb. Arnott. In describing the perigynium of O. myo- 
surus he says, “ fruetu trigono gibbo.” But this last character 
does not apply to it. 0. myosurus was founded on a specimen of 
Dr. Wight’s n. 1913 and Wallich’s n. 3384. This last number 
in Herb. Wallich (Lin. Soc. Herb.) includes a. O. myosurus , found 
by Wallich in Nepal, and b. G. baccans, sent to Wallich by Dr. 
Wight from Dindygul, and I suspect some perigynia of G. baccans 
were sent with n. 3384 to Nees : for in Herb. Wallich there is a 
small paper packet attached to the specimens, which contains peri¬ 
gynia of G. baccans with those of G. myosurus. Dr. Wallich does 
not appear to have found C. baccans, and the specimen which he 
received from Dr. Wight he united as a var. b. of his G. myosurus. 
It is evident also that Dr. Wight did not distinguish them, for 
while the Dindygul specimen n. 1913 in Herb. Wallich and also 
in Herb. Banks is G. baccans, in Herb. Arnott it is G. myosurus , 
identical with one I have from Dr. Wight, and which is figured in 
Tab. OCXXIX. and OCXXX. 
G. baccans, like G. myosurtcs, varies in the more or less compo¬ 
site inflorescence, as is the case in all these Indian paniculate spe¬ 
cies. I was for a long time doubtful what to consider the Java 
specimen, Tab. CCXXXIV., and the inflated, coloured, divergent 
perigynium alone led me to refer it to G. baccans. In more cha¬ 
racteristic specimens, from the compactness of the inflorescence, 
C. baccans often presents a dense mass of coloured baccate fruit 
10 to 12 inches in length and from 4 to 6 inches in breadth. As 
to the rudiment within the perigynium, noticed by Nees, I have 
observed it occasionally in some of Dr. Hooker’s specimens, but 
its form is so obscure that I have had some difficulty in determin¬ 
ing its nature. It has presented the appearance of a broad, ribbed, 
twisted scale, the existence of pistils alone indicating its nature. 
The specimens figured are,— 
Tab. CCXXXIV. The Java specimen of Dr. Horsfield, alluded 
to in var. 1, with the lax inflorescence and slender peduncles, the 
quadrifarious arrangement of the perigynia, and the long caudate 
male apex to the spiculse, thus approaching in habit G. myosurus, 
but with the purple, horizontally diverging, inflated perigynia, and 
the broad obtuse scale, striate nerves, and broad hyaline margin 
of G. baccans. The perigynium is more or less gibbous, xV'tV He- 
wide, obtuse at base, with its short oblique stipes ; the achenium 
elliptic, lro~To I™- l°ng, T x lin. wide, with an oblique stipes, and 
a style depressed at base and curved. The spiculse issue from 
a spathella or ruptured proliferous perigynium, such as is figured 
in Tab. CCXXXVIII. 
Tab. CCXXXV. Eig. 1, is the lower spike, of a lanceolate out¬ 
line, of a specimen of Dr. Hooker from E. Nepal, the inflores¬ 
cence more compound, the rackis stouter, and the male apices of 
the spiculse shorter and broader. The perigynia are old, of a 
spongy texture, rough between the nerves, which are almost ob¬ 
literated as well as the roughness by age, 1 T %- lin. wide. The 
achenium l T x lin. long, T V lin. wide. The lower branch of the 
spike has a bracteola. 
Eig. 2 is a spicula from a younger specimen from the same lo¬ 
cality, exhibiting the shorter broader male apex. The perigynia 
on this specimen are of an olive colour, while in some of Griffith’s 
this prevalent colour may be seen passing into red or purple. 
Eig. 3 is a portion of a spike and a perigynium from a specimen 
of Dr. Hooker’s from Khasia, alluded to in var. 3. The peri¬ 
gynium is l T ’x lin. long, J__l lin. wide, yellowish, tinged with 
bright red, with transverse corrugations, like the specimens of Sir 
G. Staunton, from the province of Chiangton, China. The ache¬ 
nium l x 3 g- lin. long, t 6 x lin. wide. In Griffith’s specimens from 
the same quarter the perigynia are yellow, or in old specimens of 
a dark lustrous purple, while in Gaudichaud’s specimens from 
Cochin China, the form of the perigynium is oblong. 
Tab. CCXXXVI. A specimen of Dr. "Wight’s from the Nilghiri, 
with short, comparatively simple partial spikes, and, as Nees says, 
“ inferioribus spicarum geminatis ternatisve.” The perigynium 
lin. wide, angular, rough, and of an olive colour. That at 
a. young, that at b. seen from the posterior surface, with a mem¬ 
brane extending from the lacinise, and as seen from that surface, 
not showing the curved deflexed rostrum, visible only on a lateral 
view. In the young perigynia the achenium is Ao Ln. wide ; but 
in old specimens, from the same locality, the perigynium is of a 
dark purple; and specimens of this age are the var. [3 of Nees, 
“ fruetu magis inflato et minus evidenter nervoso, rugoso, cras- 
siusculo.” 
Tab. CCXXXVII. A specimen of Dr. Hooker’s from Khasia, 
alluded to in var. 2; the perigynia lyVV'o h n * long, xw~ x % lin. 
wide, less or more turgid and gibbous, with a larger and more 
gracile rostrum, often obliquely ascending or divergent, of a red¬ 
dish-ferruginous colour, the orifice showing the exserted marginal 
nerve, which, broken off, would render it the “ laciniis praemorsis ” 
of the C. myosurus of Nees. The achenium is shorter, 
lin. long, AUj lin. wide, and the squamse are lanceolate and 
