332 



CYPERACEAE 



131. Carex mertensii Prescott. 

 ]\Iertens's Sedge. Fig. 807. 



Cares mertensii Prescott, Mem. Acad. St. Petersb. 11-6: 168. 1833. 

 Care.i- columbiana Dewey, Am. Journ. Sci. 30: 62. 1836. 



Cespitose and short stoloniferous, the culms 3-10 dm. high, 

 sharply triangular, rough. Leaf-blades flat, 4-7 mm. wide, 

 the lower sheaths brownish purple tinged; spikes 6-10, gynae- 

 candrous, the uppermost strongly staminate at base, the 

 lateral sparingly, 1-4 cm. long, 7-10 mm. wide, the upper 

 approximate, the lower more remote on capillary peduncles, 

 the perigynia numerous, appressed-ascending ; bracts not 

 sheathing; scales lance-ovate, acute, much shorte/ than 

 perigynia, brown with light midvein and margins; perigynia 

 broadly ovate, much flattened, light green, purple spotted, o 

 mm. long, 3 mm. wide, lightly 3-nerved, rounded at base, 

 tapering at the apex, minutely beaked, ;he beak 0.25 mm. long, 

 entire : achenes triangular, 2 mm. long, 0.8 mm. wide, strongly 

 stipitate; style slender, straight, articulated to achene and m 

 age deciduous ; stigmas 3. 



A very well marked and handsome species found from Alaska south 

 in the mountains to Trinity County, California, and eastward to Mon- 

 tana; Hudsonian Zone. Type locality: .Sitka, Alaska. 



132. Carex scopulorum Holm. 

 Holm's Rocky Mountain Sedge. Fig. 808. 



Carex tolmiei subsessilis Bailey, Mem. Torrev Club 1: 47 (in iiart). 1889. 

 Carex scopulorum Holm, Am. Journ. Sci. IV. 14: 421-2. /. 1-6. 1902. 



Loosely stoloniferous, the culms solitary- or in small clumps. 

 1-4 dm. high, stiff, smooth, sharply triangular. Leaf-blades 

 2)-7 mm. wide with revolute margins ; terminal spike staininate 

 or androgynous ; lateral spikes 2-3, pistillate or androgynous, 

 approximate, erect, sessile or stort-stalked, 1-2.5 cm. long, 

 6-7 mm. wide ; bracts not sheathing, the lowest shorter than 

 the inflorescence; scales obtuse, exceeded by perigynia, black, 

 the midvein obsolete ; perigynia 2.5-3.5 mm. long, soon turgid, 

 membranaceous, papillose, spreading, greenish straw-colored, 

 at length brownish, nerveless except the two marginal ribs, 

 abruptly contracted into a short entire more or less strongly 

 recurved beak; achenes lenticular; style slender, its base not 

 enlarged ; stigmas 2. 



High mountains, Hudsonian and Arctic-Alpine Zones; Montana and 

 Washington to Colorado and the Sierra Nevada of California (Tulare 

 County). Type locality: Clear Creek Canon, Colorado. 



133. Carex accedens Holm. 



Mount Rainier Sedge. Fig-. 809. 



Carex stylosa vircns Bailey, Proc. Am. Acad. 22: 79. 1886. 



Carex spreta Bailey, Mem. Torrey Club 1: 6. 1889; not Steud. ISdo. 



Carex accedens Holm, Am. Journ. Sci. IV. 16: 457. 1903. 



Loosely stoloniferous, the rootstocks stoutish, elongated,, the 

 stolons ascending, the culms phyllopodic, 2.5-4 dm. high, strict, 

 very sharply triangular, roughened above, purplish ting_ed at base. 

 Culms with old leaves clustered at base, the new 4-5 on lower 

 fourth, 3-4 mm. wide, flat with revolute margins, elongated, light 

 green, the lower sheaths short puberulent dorsally, white hyaline 

 and purplish spotted ventrally, not filamentose; terminal spike 

 sessile or nearly so, staminate or gynaecandrous, 18 mm. long; 

 pistillate spikes 3^, aggregated or lowest separate, sessile or 

 short-peduncled, oblong, 7-20 mm. long, 6 mm. wide, closely 

 flowered, the 20-40 perigynia spreading-ascending ; bracts dark- 

 auricled, the lowest much shorter than culm; scales lance-ovate, 

 obtuse or acutish, exceeded by perigynia, purplish black with 

 white midvein ; perigvnia broadly obovate or suborbicular, much 

 flattened, 3 mm. long', 1.75-2.25 mm. wide, sessile, nerveless, but 

 with thick margins, green not dark tinged, rather coriace9US, 

 puncticulate, abruptly beaked, the beak 0.25 mm. long, entire; 

 achenes lenticular; style jointed with achene, short protruding; 

 stigmas 2. 



Rare and local, Arctic-Alpine Zone; Mount Adams and Mount Rainier, 

 Washington; reported from Sauvie's Island, Oregon, probably erroneously. 

 Type locality: Sauvie's Island, Oregon. 



