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CAR E X fylvatica.
Pendulous Wood Carex.
M. ONOECIA Triandria.
Gen. Char. Male, Catkin imbricated. Cal. o f i 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. Sheaths but half as long as the flower-
ftalk. Spikes {lender, a little loofe, drooping.
F ru it ovate, triangular, beaked, without ribs.
Syn. Carex lylvatica. Hudf. 411. Gooden. Tr. of
Linn. Soc. v. 2. 183. Sm. FI. Brit. 983. With. 102.
Hulk 207. Relb. 356. Sikh. 30. m o t . 20*.
Dickf. H. Sicc.fafc. 9. 13.
Gramen cyperoides tylvarum, tenuius tpicatum. Ran
Sjn. 419.
, —
V^OMMON throughout Britain in woods or thickets, rather
preferring a clay foil, and lituations that are wet in winter j
flowering in May or June.
This agrees much in habit, ftature and foliage with the laft,
with which therefore moft botanifts contraft itj.but in faft the
C. fylvatica is naturally allied to C. ’uejicaria, lavigata, &c.,
and has occafionally 2 male fpikes. We would not however
lay any ftrefs on that circumftance, but rather on the ftructure
of its fruit, which has 3 prominent angles, though no intermediate
ribs, and ends in a longifh cloven beak; in fliort, it is
totally different from that of C.frigofa.—The fpikes are rather
lax, and, Handing on long capillary ftalks, are pendulous even
from the beginning. The ftamina and fligmas are three. The
feed-cafes being quite deftitute of ribs ferve clearly to diftin-
guilh it from C. vejicaria and lamgata as well as from Jlrigofa.
Linnaeus made it a variety of the former, and has celebrated
its utility to the Laplanders, who ufe it carded and dreffed as
a wadding to prote6t them from cold.