150 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



coutracted into a smooth or nearly smooth beak which is not longer 

 than the body, much wider and usually longer than the acute scale. — 

 Florida and Texas to Canada, and westward to Colorado and Oregon. 

 Extremely variable. 



Var. MiRABiLis, Tuckerman, Enum. Meth. 18. 



C. mirabilis, Dewey, Sill. Journ. xxx. 63, mostly. 

 G.festucacea, var. mirabilis, Carey, Gray's Man. 1848, 545. 

 C. cristata, var. mirabilis, Gray, Man. 5th ed. 578, mainly. 

 C. lagopodioides, var. mirabilis, Olney, Exsicc. fasc. ii. no. 9. 

 Distinguished from the species by its long and lax culm and leaves 

 (culm often four feet high), loosely flowered green spikes, and much 

 narrower and thinner perigynium. — Mostly in the shade, throughout 

 the Northern States westward to Nebraska and Iowa. 



Var. CONGESTA, Boott ; Olney, Proc. Am. Acad. vii. 393. 

 Spikes densely aggregated into an ovoid or globose head. — Cali- 

 fornia and Oregon. Resembles C. Liddoni, from which it is sepa- 

 rated by its broad perigynia. 



Var. maxima. 



C. Wrighlii, Olney, Exsicc. fasc. ii. no. 21. 

 Spikes few, globular and very large (one half to three fourths inch 

 in diameter!), contiguous, rusty: perigynium very broad and very 

 abruptly contracted into a long beak which is conspicuously spreading. 

 — Texas, Buckley, Wright. 



Var. alata, Bailey, Carex Cat. 

 C. alata, Torr. Monogr. 396. 

 C. alata, var. pulchra, Olney, Exsicc. 

 Spikes green or pale, narrowed towards the top ; perigynium very 

 broad, the point conspicuous : culm and leaves much like those of 0. 

 lagopodioides. — Michigan to Massachusetts and southward along the 

 coast to Louisiana. Apparently rare far inland. 



Specimens from Massachusetts and northward with numerous spikes 

 aggregated into bunchy heads are evidently to be referred here. They 

 closely resemble forms of O. lagopodioides. 

 Var. FGENEA, Torrey, Monogr. 395. 



C. fcenea, Willd. Enum. PI. Hort. Berol. 957. 

 G. straminea, var. ^, Gay, Ann. Sc. Nat. x. 3G2. 

 C. leporina, var. bracteata, Liebm. Mex. Halv. 76. 

 C. straminea, var. chlorostachys, Boeckeler, Linna^a, xxxix. 118. 

 Distinguished from the species chiefly by the silvery-green spikes, 

 which are oblong, erect, coutracted below, and very dense with ap- 



