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i 2 0 4 2 ]
MONOECIA Triandrid.
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. Spikelets crowded into a common spike;
the lower and upper ones female; the intermediate
ones male. Stem acutely triangular, erect.
Syn. Carex intermedia. Gooden. Tr. o f Linn. Soc. v. 2.
154. Sm. FI. Brit. 972. With. 91*' Hull. 205.
Dicks. H. Sicc.fasc. 7. 15.
C. disticha. Duds. 403» Relh. 364. Sibth. 26.
Abbot. 202»
Gramini cyperoidi ex monte Ballon simile, spica totali
e pluribus spicis composita. Raii Syn. 423*
iN o T unfrequent in marshy meadows and other watery places,
flowering in May and June.
Root creeping, running deep into the ground. Stems upright,
straight, 12 or 18 inches high, triangular, with very
sharp, more or less unequal, angles, leafy at the bottom only.
Leaves few, nearly upright, shorter than the stem, acute, almost
flat, a little rough at the edges and keel. Spike oblong,
bluntish, of a rusty brown, soft to the touch, but little compressed
and by no means two-ranked, composed of numerous,
crowded, ascending, ovate spikelets, of which. 2 or 3 of the
lowermost, and 1 or 2 of the uppermost, are almost entirely
female, the rest nearly as completely, but not absolutely,
male. In each spikelet the male flowers are always uppermost.
Bracteas ovato-lanceolate, membranous, brown, white-
edged ; the lowest ending in a leafy point. Glumes ovate,
acute, brown, with a pale nerve and white edge* Fruit ovate,
acute, winged, rough-edged, with a cloven point. Stigma*
2, sometimes 3,