290 



CYPERACEAE 



5. Carex nigricans C. A. Meyer. 



Blackish Sedge. 



Fig. 



681. 



Carex nigricans C. A. Mever, Mem. Acad. St. Petersb. 1: 211. {^l. 7. 

 1831. 



Rootstocks Stout, lignescent, creeping, the culms 5-20 cm. 

 high, stiff, firm, smooth, exceeding leaves, brownish tinged 

 at base. Leaves 4-9 to a fertile culm, the blades 4-10 cm. 

 long, 1.5-3 mm. wide, flat or channeled at base, attenuate at 

 apex; spike solitary, androgynous, bractless, narrow, 8-15 

 mm. long, 6-9 mm. wide, densely many-flowered, the upper 

 half staminate, the lower with 10-25 perigynia; scales 

 ovate obtuse to acutish. half length of perigynia, dark brown 

 tinged with hyaline margins, soon falling ; perigynia 4 mm. 

 long, 1 mm. wide, compressed orbicular and obscurely tri- 

 angular in cross-section, brownish, nerveless, membranaceous, 

 glabrous, rounded and strongly stipitate at base,_ at maturity 

 deflexed, tapering into a long smooth beak with a dorsal 

 suture and with an obliquely cut hyaline orifice becoming 

 bidentulate ; achenes usually triangular and stigmas 3. 



Hudsonian and Arctic-Alpine Zones; Colorado to Tulare County, Cali- 

 fornia, northward to Alberta and Alaska. Type locality :Unalaska. 



6. Carex circinata C. A. Meyer. 



Coiled Sedge. 



Fig. 682. 



Carex circinata C. A. Meyer, Mem. Acad. St. Petersb. 1: 209. pi. 6. 1831. 



Cespitose from lignescent slightly creeping rootstocks, the culms 

 5-15 cm. high, slender, smooth or nearly so. the many-striate lower 

 sheaths conspicuous. Leaves several, densely clustered, the blades involute 

 filiform, 0.5 mm. wide, 2-10 cm. long; spike solitary, androgynous, 

 bractless, narrow, 1.5-2.5 cm. long, 3-4 mm. wide, the upper 

 fourth staminate, the lower with 8-15 perigynia; scales (except lowest) 

 broadly obovate. very obtuse, shorter than perigynia, reddish brown 

 with hyaline margins; perigynia erect-ascending, 5-6 mni. long, 1.5 

 mm. wide, spindle-shaped, obscurely triangular in cross-section, light 

 straw-colored, lightly nerved, glabrous, membranaceous, attenuate at 

 base, contracted into a minutely serrulate bidentulate beak 1 mm. long, 

 not sutured dorsally, but with an obliquely cut ferruginous orifice ; 

 achenes triangular ; stigmas 3. 



Along the coast, Arctic-Alpine Zone; Unalaska to northwestern Washington 

 (Olympic Mountains). Local. Type locality: Unalaska. 



^^^ 



7. Carex capitata L. 

 Capitate Sedge. Fig. 683. 



Carex capitata L. Syst. Nat. (ed. 10) 1261. 1759. 



Rootstocks slightly elongate, the culms cespitose, 1-3.5 dm. high, 

 erect, roughish above, the basal sheaths purplish, sparingly filamentose. 

 Leaf-blades filiform, about 0.5 mm. wide, rigid, stiff, shorter or longer 

 than the culm; spike solitary, ovoid, bractless, densely flowered, andro- 

 gynous, orbicular or oblong-orbicular, 4-8 mm. long, 3-6 mm. wide, 

 with 6-25 ascending perigynia below and a short but conspicuous cone 

 of staminate flowers above ; scales ovate-orbicular, obtuse, shorter and 

 narrower than perigynia, chestnut-brown with broad hyaline margins ; 

 perigynia plano-convex, sharp-edged, not inflated, 2-2.5 mm. long and 

 rather narrower, pale green, smooth, nerveless, substipitate, rounded at 

 base, the walls thin, abruptly beaked, the beak smooth, slender, dark- 

 colored, less than 1 mm. long, with closed dorsal suture, conspicuously 

 hyaline tipped, in age bidentulate; achenes lenticular; stigmas 2. 



Arctic-Alpine Zone; Greenland to Alaska, and also occurring very locally on 

 mountain summits southward; New Hampshire; Alberta; Nevada; Tulare County, 

 California; Mexico. Type locality: Europe. 



