77. Carex capillaris L. 



Densely cespitose from short rootstocks; culms usually very slender, to 6 dm. 

 high, generally much exceeding the leaves, obtusely triangular and smooth, some- 

 what fibrillose at the base, the dried leaves of the previous year conspicuous; 

 leaves clustered toward the base, usually 5 to 8 to a culm, flat or somewhat chan- 

 neled toward the base, thin but firm, 0.5-4 mm. wide, the tight sheaths truncate 

 at the mouth, the ligule very short; terminal spike staminate, very slender, 4-8 

 mm. long, 0.75-1 mm. wide, usually shorter than the uppermost pistillate spike, 

 on a short slender roughish peduncle; pistillate spikes 2 or 3, linear-oblong, 4-17 

 mm. long. 3-4 mm. wide, containing 3 to 20 ascending loosely arranged perigynia, 

 on elongate very slender drooping peduncles; bracts long-sheathing, the blades 

 leaflike, usually strongly exceeding the culm; scales orbicular-ovate, thin, closely 

 appressed, early-deciduous, somewhat wider but much shorter than the perigynia, 

 light-chestnut with conspicuous white-hyaline apex; perigynia ovoid-lanceolate, 

 obtusely trigonous, slightly inflated, 2-4 mm. long, 0.75 mm. wide, serrulate and 

 slightly ciliate, greenish-brown, nerveless except for the 2 ribs, conspicuously 

 stipitate, contracted into a straight entire minutely white-hyaline-tipped conic beak 

 1 mm. long; achenes trigonous, obovoid. 1.5 mm. long, 0.7 mm. wide, brownish 

 with blunt green angles, granular, substipitate. 



In woods, thickets, wooded swamps and on shores, in N. M. (Rio Arriba and 

 San Miguel cos.), from arctic Am. s. to Vt., N.Y., Mich., N.M. and Nev. 



78. Carex granulans Muhl. Fig. 282. 



Tufted perennial; culms 18-55 cm. long, 0.5-1.1 mm. thick, erect, leafy; 

 basal sheaths brown; cauline blades 2-4 mm. broad, olive-green, membranous, 

 erect, long-tapered; spikes 4 or 5 per culm, the upper 2 or 3 usually essentially 

 sessile and approximate, the rest remote and on slender peduncles; terminal spike 

 staminate, 15-25 (-35) mm. long, about 1 mm. thick, the ovate scales awned to 

 cuspidate or acuminate, closely appressed and brownish; rest of spikes pistillate, 

 5-20 mm. long, 3.5-5 mm. thick, with 10 to 40 close widely spreading perigynia, 

 the ovate scales little over half as long as the perigynia; bracts foliaceous, with 

 definite sheaths, the lower bracts (of fourth or fifth spike) often equaling or 

 exceeding the staminate spike; perigynia broadly ovoid to broadly obovoid, round 

 in transection, 2-2.5 mm. long, about 1.3 mm. thick, membranous, brownish, 

 with 2 ribs and about 10 nerves (these much more slender than the internerve 

 spaces), inflated, not closely investing the achene at any point, basally obtuse, 

 (either rounded or very shortly tapered), apically abruptly contracted into a 

 minute entire straight (though often distorted in prepared specimens) tubular beak 

 with a nearly entire orifice; achenes triangular with concave sides, about 2 mm. 

 long, 1.2 mm. wide, bent-apiculate, jointed with the style which entirely withers 

 after anthesis. Incl. var. Haleana (Olney) Porter. 



In water of flowing streams, wet meadows, wooded swamps, prairie swales, in 

 ditches, in Okla. {Waterfall) and e. (San Augustine Co.) and n.e. (Bowie Co.) 

 Tex., May; e. U.S. and Que. and Ont., w. to Minn., Kan., Okla. and Tex. 



79. Carex Crawei Dewey. 



Culms arising one to few together from slender long-creeping rootstocks, 1—3 

 dm. high, slender but stiff", phyllopodic, exceeding the leaves, the dried leaves 

 of the previous year conspicuous at their base; leaves 6 to 12 to a culm, thick, 

 stiff, usually recurved-spreading, 1.5-3 mm. wide, roughened on the margins 

 toward the apex, the tight sheaths hyaline ventrally, the ligule longer than wide; 

 staminate spike solitary, erect, long-peduncled, linear, 1-3 cm. long, 2-3 mm. 

 wide; pistillate spikes 2 to 4, widely separate, the lowest often nearly basal, the 

 peduncles little or not at all exserted, oblong-cylindric, 1-3 cm. long, 5-6 mm. 



553 



