$Z' [ 1505 ]
C A R E X panicea.
JPink-leaved Carex.
MONOECIA 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. Sheaths elongated, about half the length
of the flower-stalks. Female spikes rather loose,
distant. Fruit inflated. Stem smooth.
S yn. Carex panicea. Linn. Sp. PI. 138 7. Sm. FI.
Brit. 9 9 8 . Gooden. Tr. o f L. Soc. v. 2. 179.
Huds. 4 1 0 . With. 100. Hull. 207. Relh. 3 6 8 .
Sibth. 3 0 . Abbot. 2 0 5 . Schhuhr. Car. n . 93.
t. L , I f 100.
Gramen cyperoides, foliis caryophylleis, spicis e ra-
rioribus et tumidioribus granis compositis. Rail
Syn. 4 1 8 . Pluk. Phyt. t. 9 1 , f . 7.
N o T uncommon in moist pastures and meadows, flowering
in May and June.
Root creeping, blackish. Stem erect, 10 to 15 inches hioJi,
obtusely triangular, smooth. Leaves glaucous, short, roughish
at the edges, and top of the keel. Bractese acute, shorter than
the stem, with long, furrowed, pale sheaths. Male spikes 1
or 2, lanceolate, acute, dense, with brownish blunt scales,
'various in breadth, their keel green. Female spikes about 2,
sometimes male at the summits, remote, erect, on slender
stalks twice as long as the sheaths; their scales loosely imbricated,
ovate, acute, pointless, brown with a white edge and
green keel. Stigmas 3. Fruit longer than the scales, ovate,
inflated, bluntish, entire, smooth, obscurely ribbed, of a light
greenish or yellowish hue. Seed short, triangular, brown,
very frequently infested with the disease called smut, by
which it is swelled and turned into sooty dust.