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CAREX pendula.
Great Pendulous Carex.
MONOECIA Triandria.
Gen. Char. Male, Catkin imbricated. Cal. of 1
scale. Cor. none. Female, Catkin imbricated.
Cal. o f 1 scale. Cor. none. Stigmas 2 or 3.
Seed clothed with a swelling tunic.
Spec. Char. Sheaths elongated, nearly equal to the
flower-stalks. Spikes cylindrical, very long and
drooping. Fruit ovate, acute, closely crowded.
Syn. Carex pendula. Huds. 411. Sm. FI. Brit. 981.
Gooden. Tr. o f Linn. Soc. v. 2. 168. With. 96.
Hull.ed. 2. 271. Lightf. 564. JRelh. 366. Sibth.
413. Abbot. 206. Curt. Lond.fasc. 3. t. 63.
C. Agastachys. Linn. Suppl. 414. Ehrh. Phyt. n.. 19.
Gramen cyperoides, spica pendula longiore. Raii
Syn. 420.
A NATIVE of rather moist woods and hedges, which we
have no where observed more frequently than within a mile or
two of London to the north and west, flowering early in June.
Its great size, and long, dense, curved, dependent spikes, composed
of vastly more copious fruit than those of any other British
Carex, well distinguish this species.
The root is fibrous, perennial. Stem from three to five or
six feet high, erect, leafy, triangular, its edges rough near the
top only. Leaves long and broad, harsh, rough at the edge
and keel, of a full green, rather glaucous underneath. Stipula
long, narrow and sheathing. Floral leaves with tubular sheaths,
nearly as long as the flower-stalks, at least the lower ones.
Spikes on shortish stalks, cylindrical, very long, from five to
seven, all nearly entirely female, except the terminal one,
which also sometimes bears female flowers at its extremity.
The scales are rusty, with a pale keel. Anthers long, rusty.
Fruit green, a little inflated, triangular, pointed, smooth.
Stigmas three. Seed triangular, brown.