f t . [ 2 ° « ]
C AR E X rigida.
Rigid Carex.
MONOkCIA Triandria.
Gen. Char. Male, Catkin imbricated. Cal. of one
scale. Cor. none. Female, Catkin imbricated.
Cal. of one scale. Cor. none. Stigmas 2 or 3.
Seed clothed with a swelling tunic*
Spec. Char. Stigmas two. Sheaths none. } Spikes
ovate; the upper ones sessile. Leaves rigid and
somewhat recurved. Fruit rather compressed, entire.
Syn. Carex rigida. Gooden. Tr. o f Linn• Soc. v. 2.
193. t. 22. f . 10. Sm. Ft. Brit. 997. With. 106.
Hull. 208.
C. saxatilis. FI. Dan. t. 159.
Cyperoides germanicum, foliis brevibus rigidis acutis,
caule rotundo-triquetro, spicis parvis, squamis obtuse
mucronatis, capsulis oblongis turbinatis, in an-
gustum et longiusculum apicem attenuatis. Mich.
Gen. 61. t. 32. f 4.
W h e n I showed the late Mr. Hudson my original specimen
of this Carex, gathered on the lop of Ben Lomond in
1782, and called saxatilis by the Scottish botanists, he told
me he had found the same on Snowdon. It is not however
his saxatilis, which is prcecox of FI. Brit. The present
Bishop of Carlisle first clearly distinguished and named the
plant before us. Mr. Mackay sent our specimen.
It grows on the exposed summits of the loftiest mountains,
flowering in June or July, and is known by its rigid firm
habit and recurved leaves. The root is creeping, with thick
downy fibres. Stem from 3 to 6 inches high, mostly in curved,
with three sharp rough angles. Leaves rigid, somewhat
glaucous, permanent, with rough edges and keel.
Bractea generally shorter than the stem, auricled at the base.
Male spike mostly solitary, short, thick, ovate, blunt, with
abrupt pointless glumes of a dark brown, with a pale narrow
keel. Female spikes generally 3, ovate, the 2 upper ones sessile
near the male; the other distant, on a short stalk, erect,
with elliptical blunt glumes. Fruit crowded, compressed,
smooth, longer than the glumes, brown where exposed, entire,
gometimes beaked. Stigmas 2.
204J.