3 2 '" [ I098 ]
C A R E X depauperata.
Starved Wood Carex.
MONOECIA Triandrla.
Gen. Char. Male, Catkin imbricated. Cal. o f i
fcale. Cor. none. Female, Catkin imbricated.
Cal. o f i fcale. Cor. none. Stigmas a or 3.
Seed clothed with a fwelling tunic.
Spec. Char. Sheaths much ihorter than the flower-
ftalk. Female fpikes diftant, eredt, o f but few
flowers. Fruit inflated, beaked.
Syn. Carex depauperata. Gooden. Tr. o f Linn. Soc.
v. 2. 181. Sm. FI. Brit. 984. With. 102.
Hull. 207.
C. ventricofa. Curt. Lond.fafc. 6. t. 68.
C . triflora. JVilden. Piyt. fafc. 1. 2. t. 1. f 2.
Cyperoides veticarium humile, locuftis rarioribus.
Tourn. Injt. 530.
T h e name of depauperata, firft given to this Carex, and retained
by Dr. Goodenough, is fo much more apt than ventri-
cofa, that we are aftonifhed Mr. Curtis fhould have changed
it for the latter, which is equally fuitable to many others of
the genus. See FI. Lond.
C. depauperata, though known to Tournefort, as appears
by his herbarium, and figured in Micheli, t. 33. f . 5, was
neglected by recent botanifts till Dr. Goodenough found it in
Charlton wood, from whence our fpecimen was taken in the
middle of laft July. The root is perennial and fibrous. Stem a
foot and half high, flender, fmooth, bluntly triangular, bearing
a few long-fheathed diftant leaves, the 3 or 4 uppermoft of
which become bradteae, and their {heaths clofely enfold the
{lender upright ftalks of the female fpikes, fometimes for a
third part of their length, fometimes for more than half.
Each of thefe fpikes confifts of about 3 (rarely more or Iefs)
florets, with ovate or obovate fmooth glumes. The male fpike
is {blitary, terminal and ere£t. Fruit inflated, ribbed, fmooth,
with a long, {lightly notched beak. Stigmas 3. Seed triangular,
obtufe, of a {hining brown. This fpecies comes next
to C.Jylvatica, v . 14, t. 995, in charadter and habit.