(oo. [ 1387 ]
C A R EX laevigata.
Smooth-stalked Beaked Carex.
MONOECIA Triandria.
Gen. Char. Male, Catkin imbricated. Cal. of 1 scale.
Cor. none. Female, Catkin imbricated. Cal. of
1 scale. Cor. none. Stigmas 2 or 3. Seed clothed
with a swelling tunic.
Spec. Char. Spikes cylindrical: the female ones on
stalks. Sheaths very long. Glumes pointed. Fruit
triangular, with a cloven beak.
Svn. Carex laevigata. Sm. Tr. o f Linn. Soc. v. 5. 272.
FI. Brit. 1005.
C. aethiopica. Schkuhr. Caric. 107. n. 91. t. Z . f . 83.
O t JR specimens were gathered July 3d by Mr. E. Forster in a
boggy thicket near Warley Common, Essex. The same gentleman
has found this species in Cornwall and Sussex. It
was first observed in Scotland; see FI. Brit. ; but has been
overlooked by most botanists. Schkuhr had it from the isle
de Bourbon, and therefore named it, not happily, cethiopica;
but the figure in his excellent work cannot be mistaken.
This may have been considered as Carex vesicaria not fully
grown. It is distinguishable by the long stalks of its female
spikes, (which spikes also are longer and more slender than in
vesicaria,) and especially by the tunic of the seed not becoming
inflated at any period of its growth. The remarkable smoothness
of its whole stem and principal leaves, the upper floral
leaves only being rough at the edges, and the lower ones merely
at the tip, is a ready and permanent difference between this
plant and all with which it can be confounded. The spikes
become rusty, not black, by age. Their glumes have rough
points. The males are 1 or 2; females 2, 3 or 4 . Sometimes
a starved spike of hermaphrodite flowers has been observed by
Mr. J. Sowerby.