winged, when immature silvery-green, scalelike and subappressed, at maturity 

 brownish and plano-convex, very firm, with tip erect, ventrally veiny, (3-) 3.5-4.2 

 (-4.5) mm. long, 1.7-2.5 mm. broad (including the wings), broadest near the 

 middle (meaning in the upper half of the "body"), the broadly triangular "beak" 

 about 1 mm. long and scarcely differentiable from the "body"; achene lenticular, 

 about 1.5 mm. long, 0.8 mm. wide. 



Infrequent in mud and shallow water in e. and s.e. Tex., Apr.-early June; 

 Coastal States, Mass. to Tex., Ind., Mich.; Mex., Berm., also reported in Venez. 



26. Carex alata Torr. Fig. 263. 



Tufted perennial rather like C. Longii but the inflorescence perhaps on the 

 average with the spikes a little more separated from each other; perigynia (3.7-) 

 4-5 mm. long, 3.1-3.5 mm. broad, thus averaging longer and proportionately 

 broader than in C. Longii, and with the ventral veins slightly less conspicuous. 



Rare in mud and wet sandy loam, e. Tex. (Anderson Co.) and Edwards 

 Plateau (Sterling Co.), Apr.; otherwise attributed to Coastal States, Mass. to Fla. 

 and Ind., Mich, and O. 



27. Carex hvalina Boott. 



Rhizomes 2-3.5 mm. thick, branching, black-fibrous, with internodes 0.5-1 

 mm. long; culms 25-60 cm. long, about 1 mm. thick, erect, sharply triangular; 

 sheath venters pale-hyaline; blades 1-2 mm. broad, shorter than (or the upper- 

 most equaling) the culms; inflorescence 15-35 mm. long, 8-11 mm. thick, of 2 

 to 4 noticeably separated sessile ascending gynecandrous subglobose (burlike) to 

 prolate basally abruptly attenuate heads 8-12 mm. long and 8-11 mm. broad; 

 scales much shorter than their perigynia; perigynia 15 to 30 per spike, divaricate, 

 5.5-6.5 mm. long (including the beak), 2.5-3.2 mm. broad, widest well below 

 the middle, the body (poorly differentiated) broadly ovate, widest near the 

 middle, at anthesis pale-greenish-stramineous, membranous and distended only 

 over the achene, at maturity very firm, unequally biconvex centrally and with 

 the margins and wings strongly curved toward the ventral surface, stramineous 

 with a brownish submarginal zone, strongly veined ventrally, with transverse 

 wrinkles between the veins and in the margins and wings; beak poorly differen- 

 tiated, elongate-triangular, 1.5-2 mm. long, green turning brownish; achene 

 lenticular, about 2 mm. long, 1 mm. wide. 



Infrequent to rare in mud, Okla. (McCurtain Co.) and e. Tex. (Cass, Houston 

 and Walker cos.), very rare in n.-cen. Tex. (Dallas Co.), Apr.-May; Ark., Okla. 

 and Tex. 



28. Carex BickneUii Britt. 



Culms cespitose, slender, erect, exceeding the leaves, 5-10 dm. tall; principal 

 leaf blades 2-4.5 mm. wide; spikes usually 4 to 6, the pistillate portion globose to 

 ovoid, 8-12 mm. long, often distinctly clavate at base and to 18 mm. long (in- 

 cluding the staminate portion), separate or somewhat aggregated in an oblong to 

 linear cluster 3-7 cm. long; pistillate scales lance-ovate, shorter (1-2 mm.) and 

 much narrower than the perigynia, pale-brown with green midnerve and narrow 

 hyaline margins; perigynia broadly ovate, straw-color, 4.2-7.7 mm. long, 2.7-4.8 

 mm. wide, very flat, thin and almost translucent, broadly winged, sharply several- 

 nerved on both faces, abruptly contracted into the beak; achene lenticular, obo- 

 vate, about 2 mm. long and 1.5 mm. wide. 



In wet or dry meadows, fields and open woods, in Okla. {Waterfall) and N.M.; 

 Me. to Sask., s. to Del.. O., Mo., Okla. and N.M. 



513 



