114 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



woods and copses, Canada and W. New England to Pennsylvania, 

 Kentucky, and Illinois. 



158. Carex HiTCHCocKiANA, Dewey, Sill. Journ. x. 274. 

 Dedicated to the geologist, Edward Hitchcock, and lady, who aided 



Professor Dewey in securing jalates to illustrate his writings in Silli- 

 man's Journal. — Same distribution as the last. 



B. Laxlflorce, Kunth, Enum. PI. ii. 452. (Careyana, Tuckerman, Enum. Metli. 

 15. Plantaginece and Digitales, Carey, Gray's Man. 1848, 554.) Slender more 

 or less broad-leaved species with mostly leafy bracts, green sheaths, and 

 loosely flowered spikes ; perigynium mostly conspicuously three-angled, 

 with a more or less curved beak. — In C. Caroliniana and C. plantaginea the 

 sheaths are leafless and more or less colored. 



159. Carex laxiflora, Lamarck, Diet, de Bot. iii. 392. 

 C striatula, Michx. Fl. Bor.-Am. ii. 173. 



C. anceps, Schwein. & Torr. Monogr. 343, in part. 

 C ignota, Dewey, Sill. Journ. 2d ser. vi. 348. 

 The following key to C laxiflora and its varieties, modified from 

 Dr. Boott, is convenient : — 



I. Perigynium elliptic, attenuated at the apex, not prominently nerved ; beak 



not strongly curved. 



1. Leaves narrow. 



a. Spikes narrow, loosely flowered, cylindrical . . . C. laxiflora. 



b. Spikes broad, densely flowered, oblong . . . Var. styloflexa. 



2. Leaves usually broad and flat. Spikes narrow and loosely flowered. 



Var. palidifolia. 



II. Perigynium obovate, abruptly beaked, mostly conspicuously striate ; beak 

 short, usually strongly recurved. 



1. Leaves narrow. 



a. Spikes narrow, mostly cylindrical and loosely flowered ; plants 

 slender ......... Var. intermedia. 



b. Spikes thick, oblong, densely flowered ; plants stouter, the bracts 

 very broad and leafy Var. striatula. 



2. Leaves very broad. — Spikes narrow and loosely flowered. Var. latifolia. 



Typical C. laxiflora is further distinguished by a long-peduncled 

 staminate spike, pistillate spikes an inch or more long and more or 

 less scattered : leaves three lines or less broad. Evidently not com- 

 mon, at least northward. — Connecticut and Michigan (?) to Florida 

 and Texas. 

 Var. STYLOFLEXA, Boott, 111. 37. 



C. styloflexa, Buckley, Sill. Journ. xlv. 174. 



O.fusiformis, Chapra. ; Dewey in Sill. Journ. 2d ser. vi. 244. 



C. protracta, Steud. Cyper. Plant. 234. 



