scales ovate-triangular, white-hyaline with green midrib, narrower and shorter 

 than the perigynia; perigynia plump, unequally biconvex, elliptic-ovoid, 2-2.8 

 mm. long, 1.5 mm. wide, light-green to yellow-green, finely many-nerved on both 

 surfaces, white-punctate, short-stipitate, abruptly contracted into a minute entire 

 beak; achenes lenticular, oblong-elliptic, brownish-yellow, glossy, 1.7 mm. long, 



1 mm. wide. 



In boggy meadows, coniferous woods, and on peaty banks of streams and 

 lakes, in N. M. (Sandoval, San Miguel, Santa Fe and Taos cos.); Lab. to Alas., 

 southw. to N.J., Ind., N.M., Ariz, and Calif.; also Euras. 



5. Carex canescens L. 



Plants densely cespitose from short rootstocks. often in large tussocks; culms 

 1-8 dm. high, soft, sharply triangular, often lax and widely spreading; leaves 

 glaucous-green, soft, flat, 2-4 mm. wide; sheaths tight, thin and hyaline ventrally; 

 spikes 4 to 8, silvery-brown, the upper approximate, the lower separate, containing 

 10 to 30 appressed-ascending perigynia, the terminal generally clavate at the 

 staminate base; scales broadly ovate, hyaline with a green center, shorter than 

 the perigynia; perigynia plano-convex, ovoid-oblong, 1.8-3 mm. long, 1.25-1.75 

 mm. wide, pale-green to whitish-brown, more or less nerved on both surfaces, the 

 sharp margin smooth throughout or only minutely serrulate at the base of the 

 very short inconspicuous or obsolete beak; achenes lenticular, oblong-obovate, 

 substipitate, 1.5 mm. long, 0.9 mm. wide. 



Locally abundant on lake margins and shallow water, and in swamps and bogs, 

 in N.M. (Taos Co.) and Ariz. (Apache Co.); Nfld. to Alas., s. to N.J., N.M., 

 Ariz, and Calif.; also Euras. and Austral. 



6. Carex cephalophora Muhl. Fig. 258. 



(Sub-) rhizomatous perennial; rhizomes 2-10 cm. long, much-branched, about 



2 mm. thick, with very short internodes; culms 15-30 (-45) cm. long, 1-2 mm. 

 thick, ascending; leaves 2 to 4 per culm, mostly basal; blades about 15 cm. long 

 and 2 mm. broad, the sheaths ventrally smooth, rather tight-fitting, stramineous, 

 the orifice broadly U-shaped; spikes 5 to 10. each with about 10 perigynia. very 

 short, sessile, androgynous, aggregated in a narrow more or less ovoid nearly or 

 usually quite bractless head 10-15 (-17) mm. long and 4-9 mm. broad; scales 

 inconspicuous, shorter than the perigynia; perigynia ascending, much-flattened, 

 broadly ovate, the body 1.5-2.5 mm. long and 1-1.5 mm. broad, plano-convex, 

 ventrally quite smooth and with raised margins, basally not differentiated or else 

 discoloring brown in the basal third to fourth the length, firm-membranous, with 

 inconspicuous only slightly tougher margins and with a very short triangular beak 

 less than half as long as the body; achene lenticular, about 1.7 mm. long, 1.5 mm. 

 wide. Incl. var. angustifoUa Boott and some plants referred to C "inesochorea" 

 Mack., C. Leavenworthii Dew. 



Frequent in usually moist sandy soil at base of bluffs, in wettish pasturelands, 

 in Okla. (Cherokee and Muskogee cos.) and in e., s.e. and n.-cen. Tex., rare in 

 parts of Edwards Plateau (Enchanted Rock), spring; e. N.A., w. to Mich.. Lt., 

 Mo., Okla. and Tex. 



7. Carex decomposita Muhl. Fig. 259. 



Perennial, the branching fibrous blackish rhizomes with internodes several mm. 

 to several cm. long; culms weakly arcuately ascending, soft, 5-15 dm. long. 3-7 

 mm. thick, nearly terete; lower sheaths brownish or reddish-brown. 1-2 cm. long; 

 sheath venters papery, tending to split at maturity, not at all wrinkled, orifice 

 weakly rounded; upper leaves long, much-surpassing the inflorescence; inflores- 

 cence a decompound panicle of 5 to 10 spiciform erect branches (the lower 

 branches longer than the upper ones), each branch bearing 5 to 20 short ovoid 



502 



