2770
CAREX speirostachya.
Dense-short-spiked Carex.
MONOECIA Triandria.
Gen. Char. Flowers diclinous, in a closely imbricated
spike. Scales single-flowered. Male :
Perianthium none. Stamens 3. Female : Perianthium
monophyllous, capsular, persistent, contracted
at the top, awnless at the base. Stigmas
2 or 3. Nut included within the enlarged perianthium.
Spec. Char. Sheaths shorter than the peduncles.
Female spikes about 3, distant, erect, ovate,
dense, many-flowered. Fruit ovate, ventricose,
ribbed, smooth, with a rough, cloven beak, membranous
at the orifice.
Syn. Carex speirostachya. Swartz, MSS. Sm.Engl.
FI. v. 4. 98.
C. distans. FI. Dan. t. 1049.
C. n. 1382 |3. Hall. Hist. v. 2. 193.
C. n. 1383. Hall. Nomencl. 125.
T he whole herbage of a lively green. Root brown,
creeping. Stems erect, slender, from a span to a foot high,
bluntly 3-sided, smooth and glossy, leafy at the base, having
a slight degree of roughness towards the top. Leaves
erect, shorter than the stem, linear, acuminate, nerved,
quite smooth, paler and slightly keeled below, the edges,
especially towards the apex, rough with very minute, almost
imperceptible teeth. Sheaths about an inch long, or
rather more, close, smooth and shining, terminated by a
blunt membranous appendage. Bracteas long and leafy,