5*  Perigyniuin firm and rusty, smooth or minutely granular, nerved, not inflated, mostly 
short-beaked with an entire orifice: pistillate spikes compactly flowered and mostly short 
and erect, fuscous: stigmas 8.—SPIROSTACHY &. 
20. C. microdonta Torr. & Hook. Erect and rather strict 25 to 50 cm. high, the 
leaves short and flat (often becoming involute when dry), 3 to 4mm, wide: pistillate 
spikes (2 or 3) all scattered, the lowest one usnally radical or nearly so, and long 
peduncled, erect, 2 to 3 em, long: bracts sheathing: perigynium ovate, prominently 
pointed, finely nerved, about equaling the sharp hyaline scale. (C. alveata Boott. 
C. Remeriana Scheele. C. Wrightii Dewey.)—Wet prairies and woods, Mississippi 
to central Texas. Var. LATIFOLIA Bailey, of wet prairies, has leaves very short (7 
to 12 em.) and very broad (6 cm.), many-nerved, long-acuminate, and the sheaths 
loose and conspicuous. 
6* Perigynium firm, greenish or green-tawny, mostly short and triangular and bearing 
a short straight or curved beak, scarcely inflated: pistillate spikes short (seldom exceed- 
ing 2.5 em.) and except in No. 24 very loosely flowered, the scales whitish or purple 
margined: bracts sheathing. —DACTYLOSTACHY 4”, 
+ Spikes loosely or even alternately flowered. 
21. C. laxiflora Lam. Slender but usually erect, 3 to5 dm. high, the leaves soft 
and nearly flat and rarely over 3 to 4.cm, wide: staminate spike pedurcled or at 
least conspicuous: pistillate spikes 2 to 4, scattered, peduncled or the top one sessile, 
cylindric or sometimes short-oblong, erect or the lowest one or two spreading: peri- 
gynium obovate, conspicuously nerved, the short entire beak much bent or even 
recurved: scale thin and whitish, blunt or cuspidate, mostly shorter than the peri- 
gynium., (C, fruncata Beeckl,  C. lariflora, var. intermedia Boott. C. laxiflora, var. sty- 
loflera Olney, Hall’s Pl, Tex., No. 750, at least in part.)—Grassy places, Canada to 
the Gulf and central Texas. Var. BLANDA Boott is diffuse, with broader leaves, 
staminate spike mostly sessile and inconspicuous, pistillate spikes seldom over 15mm. 
long, the upper ones sessile and more or less aggregated, the lowest one or two 
usually long-exserted. (C. blanda Dewey ©. laxiflora, var, striatula Carey.) 
22. C. Styloflexa Buckley. Very slender,the culms long (3 to5 dm.) and weak, the 
leaves 2 to 3inm, wide: staminate spike commonly peduncled: pistillate spikes 2 or 
3, scattered in the typical forms but sometimes aggregated and sessile near the top 
of the culm, few-flowered, the lowest ones normally drooping: perigynium promi- 
nently triangular with a long and nearly straight point. (C, acuminata Schw. C. 
protracta and C, Chapmanni Steud, C. fusiformis Chapm. C. styloflera Buck], C, laxi 
flora, var. styloflera Boott.)—Pennsylvania to Florida and Texas. 
23. C. striatula Michx. Usually tall and very slender but mostly strict, with very 
narrow leaves: staminate spike long-peduncled : pistillate spikes scattered, the lowest 
slenderly peduncled, all loosely or alternately flowered, not over 2 to 3 cm. long: 
perigynium long-pointed and but little curved, triquetrous, finely many-nerved, 
much longer than the very thin seale. (C, ignota Dewey C. laxiflora, var. Michauxti 
Bailey.)—Carolina to Florida and Texas. 
+ Spikes compactly flowered, especially above the base. 
24. C. tetanica Schk., var. Meadii Bailey. Strict, 25 to 50 cm. high: staminate 
spike single, clavate, and stalked: pistillate spikes 1 to 3, the upper one sessile or 
nearly so and the others more or less peduncled and sometimes loosely flowered at 
the base, all erect, 2.5 cm. or less Jong, rather thick above the base: perigynium 
somewhat turgid or at least plump, greenish when fresh, and prominently many 
nerved, the short beak strongly bent: scale bluntish or at most short-acute, rarely 
exceeding but mostly not equalling the perigynium, (C. Meadii Dewey. C. panicea, 
var. Meadii Olney, Hall’s Pl. Tex., No, 739.)—Meadows and moist woods, Rhode Island 
to Nebraska and southward to central Texas, 
