344 



PHOEXICACEAE 



167. Carex comosa Boott. 

 Bristly Sedge. 



Fig. 843. 



Care.v fiircata Ell. Sketch Bot. 2: 552. 1824; not Lappeyr 1813. 



Carex comosa Boott, Trans. Linn. Soc. 20: 117. 1846. 



Carex pseudo-cyperus comosa Boott, 111. Car. 4: 141. 1867. 



Carex psetido-cvperus americana Hochst.; Bailey, Mem. Torrey Club 

 1: 54. 1889. 



Cespitose and not stoloniferous, the culms stout. 5-15 



dm. high, very sharply angled, strongly roughened to 



smooth. Leaves very nodulose, the blades 6-14 mm. wide, 



flat with revolute margins, the basal sheaths not breaking 



nor filamentose ; staminate spike 3-7 cm. long, 4-7 mm. 



wide, slender-stalked, the scales rough-awned ; pistillate 



spikes 1-4, densely many-flowered, oblong-cylindric, 1-6 cm. 



long, 12-14 mm. wide, the upper erect and short-peduncled, 



the lower slender-stalked and at length nodding; lower 



bracts exceeding culm ; scales narrow, very rough-awned, 



mostly shorter than the perigynia, greenish or brownish 



tinged; perigynia lanceolate, rigid, 5-7 mm. long, 1.5 mm. 



wide, greenish or brownish tinged, round-tapering and 



stipitate at base, closely many-ribbed, reflexed when mature, tapering into a smooth strongly 



bidentate beak with recurved spreading awns 1.5-2 mm. long; achenes triangular, continuous 



with style ; stigrnas 3. 



Swamps, Transition Zone; Nova Scotia to Minnesota, south to Florida and Louisiana, and very locally on 

 !he Pacific Coast from San Francisco Bay to Washington, and east to Idaho. A stray plant has been collected 

 in the San Bernardino Valley. Type locality: Georgia and Carolina. 



Family 12. PHOENICACEAE. 



Palm Family. 



Tall or low trees with unbranched cylindrical trunks, bearing a tuft of large 

 leaves at the apex, clothed below by the persistent leaf-bases. Leaves plaited in 

 the bud, fan-shaped or pinnate, long-petioled, with the stalks clasping at the base 

 by broad tough fibrous sheaths. Flowers small, perfect or unisexual, in large 

 compound axillary spadices, surrounded by large spathes. Perianth of 6 segments 

 in two sets, usually firm in texture, the segments distinct or more or less united. 

 Stamens mostly 6, sometimes 9-12; filaments dilated at base and more or less 

 united; anthers introrse. Ovary of 3 more or less united or distinct carpels; 

 styles 1-3 ; ovules 1 to each cell. Fruit a drupe or berry. Seeds often hollow ; 

 endosperm horny or cartilaginous, rarely channelled, with the small cylindrical 



embryo imbedded near the surface. 



a large and important tropical and subtropical family comprising 150 genera and about 1000 species. 



1. WASHINGTONIA H. Wendl. Bot. Zeit. 37: 68. 1879. 



Trees with tall cylindrical trunks, clothed sometimes almost to the ground with a d€nse 

 thatch of dead drooping leaves. Leaves large, fan-shaped, on long petioles furnished on 

 the margins with stout, straight or recurved, flattened spines, the leaf-divisions separating 

 on the margins into slender light colored fibres. Spadix with long conspicuous spathes sub- 

 tending the principal branches. Flowers perfect. Fruit a small rounded or ellipsoid black 

 berry, with dry thin flesh. Seeds shallowly excavated on the raphal face. [Name in honor 

 of George Washington.] 



A genus of three species, peculiar to the arid regions of southwestern United States and northern 

 Mexico. Type species, IVashingtonia filifera (Linden) Wendl. 



