C A R E X Micheliana.
Blunt-fruited, Black Car ex.
MONOECIA Triandria.
Gen, Char. Male, Catkin imbricated. Cal. o f one
scale. Cor. none. Female, Catkin imbricated.
Cal. o f one scale. Cor* none. Stigmas 2 or 3.
Seed clothed with a swelling tunic.
Spec. Char. Spikes upright, cylindrical; the female
ones stalked. Glumes all obtuse and pointless.
Fruit obovate, very blunt.
Syn. Carex Micheliana. Sm. Tr. o f Linn. Soc. v. 5.
* 2 7 0 . FI. Brit. 1 0 0 4 .
C. ambleocarpa. Willd. Sp. PL v. 4. 3 0 7 .
Cyperoides foliis caryophylleis, caule exquisite tri-
an g u la ri, spicis habitioribus, squamis curtis, obtuse
muc rona tis, capsulis tu rb in a tis brevibus
confertis. Mich. Gen. 6 2 . t. 3 2 . ƒ . 1 2 .
T h e introduction of this, as a distinct species, into the
Flora Britannica having led botanists into a mistake, we judge
it right to lay before them all the sources of our error, by
exhibiting a plate of the specimen on which it was founded,
and which was received from Professor Beattie of Aberdeen as
a variety of C. recurva, t. 1506, such as we are now convinced
it really is. The names of Micheliana and ambleocarpa are
therefore alike superfluous. The synonym of Micheli, though
adopted from his figure and definition alone,- we see no cause
to reject. It becomes us here further to acknowledge that all
British botanists have done wrong in preferring their countryman
Hudson’s name of recurva, to the older, and beyond all
comparison better, one of Scopoli, glauca, whose claims we
incautiously overlooked in FI. Brit.
The plant before us differs from the usual state of recurva
in having numerous male spikes, and a smooth fruit; circumstances
which, however important in most Carices, prove in
this case to be variable. The turgescence of the fruit is more
or less, according to its age and perfection. The compound
lower spike in our specimen is, of course, an accident.