72 THE GENUS CAREX IN CALIFORNIA 



mm. wide, closely flowered with 15-20 appressed-ascending perigynia; lowest bract 

 shorter than culm; scales narrower than perigynia, ovate, acutish, purplish-black 

 with light midvein; perigynia obovate, strongly flattened, 3 mm. long, 1.75 mm. 

 wide, strongly papillate-roughened above, nerveless ventrally, lightly nerved dorsally, 

 round-tapering and substipitate at base, abruptly minutely beaked, the beak 0.25 

 mm. long, minutely bidentate; achenes somewhat narrower than perigynia, short 

 stipitate. 



Type Locality: Needle Mt., Wyoming (Cary 613). 



Mountain meadows, California east to Arizona and Colorado, north to 

 Montana. 



Loc: Glacier Lake, Tulare Co., Dudley 1699. 



Ref.: Carex albo-nigra Mackenzie in Rydb. Fl. Rocky Mts., 137 (1921). 



96. C. Mertensii Prescott. Cespitose and short stoloniferous, the culms 

 3-10 dm. high, sharply triangular, rough, the lower sheaths brownish-purple tinged; 

 leaf -blades flat, 4-7 mm. wide; spikes 6-10, 1-4 cm. long, 7-10 mm. wide, gyn«cand- 

 rous, the upper approximate, the lower more remote on capillary peduncles, the 

 upper most strongly staminate at base, the lateral sparingly; perigynia numerous, 

 appressed-ascending; scales lance-ovate, acute, brown with light midvein and 

 margins; perigynia broadly oval, much flattened, 5 mm. long, 3 mm. wide, rounded 

 at base, papery, yellowish-green, purple-spotted, tapering at the apex, minutely 

 beaked, the beak 0.5 mm. long, entire; achene 0.8 mm. wide, 2 mm. long, strongly 

 stipitate. 



Type Locality: Sitka, Alaska. 



Mountains, Alaska to northern California, east to Montana. A very well 

 marked and handsome species abundant further north, which has but recently 

 been found in Trinity Co. 



Loc: North Fork, Coffee Creek, Trinity Co., Goldsmith 20. 



Refs.: Carex Mertensii Prescott, Mem. Acad. St. Petersb. (2) 6: 168 (1833); Kuk., in 

 Engler, Pflzr. 42°: 400 (1909). C. columbiana Dewey, Am. Jour. Sci. 30: 62 (1836), type from Columbia 

 River, Scouler. 



XXVIII. Acut^e Fries. Culms leafy below, aphyllopodic or phyllopodic. Terminal 

 1-several spikes staminate (rarely gynajcandrous), linear, the others pistillate, 

 linear to cylindric or oblong, closely many-flowered, sessile or peduncled. 

 Bracts sheathless or rarely short-sheathing, leafy or squamiform, often bi- 

 auriculate and darkened at the base. Perigynia membranaceous to coriaceous, 

 piano- or bi-convex or turgid, elliptic to obovate, puncticulate, margined, beak- 

 less or abruptly minutely beaked, the orifice entire to deeply bidentate. Achenes 

 normally lenticular. Style straight, slender, sometimes exserted, jointed to 

 achene and deciduous, its base not enlarged. Stigmas normally 2. 



97. C. scopulorum Holm. Loosely stoloniferous; culms solitary or in small 

 clumps 1-4 dm. high, stiff, sharply triangular, smooth; leaf -blades 3-7 mm. wide 

 with revolute margins; terminal spike staminate or androgynous; lateral spikes 2-3, 

 approximate, erect, sessile or short-stalked, pistillate or androgynous, 1-2.5 cm. 

 long, 6-7 mm. wide; lowest bract shorter than inflorescence; scales obtuse, exceeded 

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

 papillose, spreading, nerveless, with short but prominent entire beak. 



Type Locality: Clear Creek Canon, Colorado (Holm). 



