23 
CAREX XANTHOCARPA ANNECTENS Ni. var. 
Lower and more slender than C. xanthocarpa, 114°-3° tall; 
culms trigonous, scabrous above, smooth and sometimes subter- 
ete below, exceeding the leaves. Leaves mostly 6’—1° long, often 
very narrow, 1’’-2’’ wide. Head short, 34’-1 4’ long, 3’’-4” wide, 
green, varying to dull yellowish or greenish-tawny, the spikes 
noticeably bracteate, the lowest bract frequently exceeding the 
head. Spikes globose to ovoid-oblong, mostly distinct and loosely 
aggregated below the apex of the head, or the lowest, or lower 
two or three, slightly separated, either all simple and distinct or 
the lower subglomerate with smaller spikelets at their bases. In 
small forms the head may consist of only 6-8 globose more or 
less distinct spikes. Spikes relatively few-flowered, the perigynia 
finally loosely spreading, mostly exceeded by the awns of the 
scales, which gives the head a somewhat bristly appearance. Peri- 
gynia dilated-ovate or suborbicular (rarely narrower) mostly from 
a broad base, narrowed or abruptly contracted to the short rough- 
margined beak, sometimes slightly corky in the edges, few-nerved 
in the middle of the outer face, often broader than long, the body 
1’’ or more broad, 1” or less long. Achene broadly ovate-oblong 
or suborbicular, nearly truncate at base, 14’” or more wide. 
About damp thickets in low grounds and in moist woods. 
Common at New York. In the Columbia College Herbarium 
are specimens from Staten Island (Britton) and North Carolina 
(Curtis), 
In the present state of our knowledge of it this is a very puz- 
zling plant. It has an aspect of its own, which makes it easy to 
recognize in the field, so far as I have observed it, yet certain her- 
barium specimens suggest that it shades into reduced forms of xan- 
thocarpa. I have seen no specimens which were not clearly separable 
from C. vulpinordea, although the general appearance of the head 
is often closely similar. Smaller forms having heads of few simple 
spikes sometimes bear a singularly close resemblance to C. Mulen- 
berghit enervis. 
The plant differs from C. xanthocarpa mainly in simpler, looser | 
and more bracteate, greener heads, more loosely-flowered spikes | 
with spreading perigynia, longer-awned, paler scales which appear 
more bristly in the spikes, broader and more greenish perigynium, : : 
broader achene. From vulpinoidea it differs in shorter leaves» ae 
longer culm, shorter and simpler heads, larger and broader perigy- : 
nium, with much shorter and rougher beak, larger achene. a 
