OP AETS AND SCIENCES. 95 



Mts. of British America ; Pend d'Oreille River, Idaho, Lyall ; N. W. 

 Coast, fide Boott. Europe. 



Var. STYGiA. 



G. stygia, Fries, Mant. iii. 141. 



Spikes mostly thicker and more drooping : scales very black, longer 

 pointed. — Alaska, Dall, Mertens, Blschoff, Shumagin I., Harrington. 

 Finmark. 



Section IV. VIGNEASTR^, Tuckerman, Enum. Meth. 10. 

 Peduncles branching (producing spikelets) or two or more borne in 

 one axil ; spikes or spikelets all staminate at the top ; perigynium 

 mostly compressed and slender; stigmas usually three. — A singular 

 section, peculiar to warm climates. It reaches its highest development 

 in India and adjacent regions. None of the species have been found 

 vi^ithin the limits of the United States. 



A. Polijstachya, Tuckerman, 1. c. 10. Habit mucli like that of the Debiles ; 

 spikes and spikelets long and slender, mostly all long-peduncled, usually 

 two or more simple ones from each sheath. — Tall species, represented in 

 Atlantic countries by the species which follow, and C. elata, Lowe, of 

 Madeira. 



104. Carex spilocarpa, Steudel, Plant. Cyper. 195. 

 C. maculata, Liebra. Mex. Hal v. 80, not Boott. 



" Culm two to three feet high, triquetrous, glabrous ; leaves shorter 

 than the culm, broadly linear (four to five lines wide), carinate, rigid, 

 glaucous, the margins and keel rough above, the sheaths membrana- 

 ceous, flaccid : spikes seven to ten, usually two from the axil of one 

 bract, the uppermost solitary, lowest remote, all erect, becoming pen- 

 dulous, one to one and a half inches long, densely flowered, cylindrical, 

 long-peduncled, the peduncles filiform, flexuose and scabrous (one to four 

 inches long) : bracts equalling the spikes, the sheaths withered in front, 

 the orifice cut: staminate scales broadly ovate, obtuse, the mid-nerve 

 carinate and yellowish green, the lateral nerves nearly dark purple, 

 margin hyaline : pistillate scales spreading, ovate, about equalling the 

 perigynium : perigynium slightly compressed, plano-convex, elliptical, 

 short-beaked, nerved, the angles acute and slightly scabrous, the 

 upper side and apex spotted with dark purple, otherwise fuscous, 

 sides roughly granulate, beak bifid : achenium elliptic-trigonous, sides 

 convex, very slightly punctulate." — Orizaba, South Mexico, at 8,000 

 to 10,000 feet, Sept., Liebmann. 



105. Carex Cortesii, Liebmann, Mex. Halv. 80. 



" Culm two to two and a half feet high, triquetrous, rough on the 



