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C A R E X veficaria.
Short-Spiked Bladder Carex.
MO NO EC 1A Triandr'ta.
Gen. Char. Male, Catkin imbricated,' Cal. o f l fcale.
Cor. none. Female, Catkin imbricated. Cal. o f I
fcale. Cor. none. Stigmas 2 or 3. Seed clothed
with a fwelling tunic.
Spec. Char. Female fpikes cylindrical, fhortifh,
nearly feffile. Sheaths none. Fruit inflated,
beaked, cloven.
Syn. Carex veficaria. Linn. Sp. PI. 1388, ce. and y.
Sm. Fl. Brit. 1005. Gooden. Tr. of Linn. Soc.
•v. 2. 205. With. n o . Hull. 209. Sib lb. 32.
Dick/. H. Sicc.fafc. 14. 18.
C. inflata. Hudf. 412. Light/. 567.
Gramen cyperoides majus praecox, fpicis turgidis
teretibus flavefcentibus. Dill, in Rail Syn. 420.
L i k e other large fpeciesof Carex, the veficaria is found in
wet meadows and marfhy places, though not very frequently.
I t feems to be moll: common in the northern or mountainous
counties, but may alfo be met with near the water-works at
Pimlico, and elfewhere about the Thames. It flowers in May.
Root perennial and creeping. Stem upright, 2 feet high,
•with very fharp rough angles. Leaves ereft, bright-green,
ending in a taper point, rough on the edges. The brafteae
have moreover a rough keel, and little or no length of fheath
at their bafe. Male fpikes from 1 to 3, flender, acute, with
linear-lanceolate, fharpifh, brown, green-keeled fcales; female
about 3, generally almoft feffile, thick and fhort (compared
with other neighbouring fpecies), with fharp fcales. Stigmas 3.
Fruit thickly ranged in feveral rows, fpreading, longer than the
fcales, ovate, pointed, ribbed, inflated, fmooth, yellowifh and
fhining when ripe, cloven at the tip. The feed contained
within it is fmall, feffile, fhort, triangular, crowned with the
long permanent ftyle fhorn of its ftigmas.
The fhort thick pale fpikes, with their bladdery fhining fruits,
readily diftinguifh this fpecies. The two varieties of Linnaeus
above quoted are only different ft ages of the fructification.