60 



THE GENUS CAREX IN CALIFORNIA 



V! 



Type Locality: Mendocino City, California (Bolander 4741). 

 Meadows and prairies from northwestern California through western Oregon 

 to southwestern Washington. Apparently rare and local. 



A very well-marked species as far as any others known on the Pacific coast are concerned. 

 It is however very closely related to Carex polymorpha Muhl., a rare and very local species found 

 only east of the Alleghenies from Maine to Pennsylvania, which is a species very distinct from any 

 others in the eastern United States. Carex polymorpha differs from the California species in its 

 larger and longer beaked perigynia, much shorter bracts and fewer pistillate spikes. 



Locs : Mendocino City, Bolander 4741; Mendocino Co., Congdon. 



Refs • Carex californica Bailey, Mem. Torr. Club 1: 9 (1889), not Parish, Bull. S. 

 Cal. Acad. 5: 36 (1906). "C. polymorpha Muhl." W. Boott in S. Wats. Bot. Cal. 2: 247 (1880). 

 C. polymorpha Muhl. var. californica Kuk. in Engler, Pflzr. 420 : 515 (1909). 



XXII. Laxiflor^e Kunth. Cespitose. Fertile culms 

 mostly lateral, the sterile shoots leafy, conspic- 

 uous. Basal sheaths brownish or purplish-tinged. 

 Terminal spike staminate, linear. Lateral spikes 

 2-5, pistillate or androgynous, loosely to closely 

 few to many-flowered, in few to several ranks, 

 on erect to drooping, included or exserted pedunc- 

 les. Bracts sheathing, the sheaths green or purplish 

 tinged, the blades leaf-like or sometimes reduced. 

 Scales green with hyaline margins or more or less 

 colored. Perigynia ascending, membranaceous, tri- 

 angular, usually nerved, closely enveloping the 

 achene, glabrous or hispidulous, tapering at the base, 

 short-beaked or beakless, the orifice entire. Achenes 

 triangular, apiculate. Style slender, jointed with the 

 achene, and at length deciduous. Stigmas 3. 



76. C. Hendersonii Bailey. (Fig. 30). Cespitose 

 (often loosely so), the culms 4-8 dm. high, slender, 

 sharply triangular, rough above; sterile shoots developing 

 conspicuous culms; culm blades 3-8 mm. wide, 5-25 cm. 

 long, those of the sterile shoots 4-10 mm. wide, 2-5 dm. 

 long; terminal spike staminate, 2-3 cm. long, more or 

 less peduncled; pistillate spikes 2-4, erect, linear, 12-25 

 mm. long, 4-6 mm. wide, with 5-12 alternate ascending 

 perigynia, the upper spikes approximate, little if at all 

 exsert-peduncled, the lower widely separate and often 

 long exsert-peduncled; scales broadly obovate, mu- 

 cronate, 3-nerved, green with hyaline margins, often 

 reddish-brown tinged; perigynia narrowly ovoid, 5-6 mm. 

 long, 2 mm. wide, long tapering and substipitate at base, 

 tapering into a long straight scarcely differentiated beak 

 obliquely cut at mouth. 



Type Locality: Bogs at Portland, Oregon (L. F. 

 Henderson). 



Damp woods in the California Coast Ranges from 

 Sonoma Co. northward, extending throughout western 

 Oregon and Washington and the southwestern part of 

 British Columbia. 



Locs.: Mendocino City, Bolander 4747; Guerneville, Davy; 

 Eureka, Blankinship, Tracy 2202, 4070; Little River, Humboldt Co., 

 Tracy 3230; Scotia, Humboldt Co., Dudley; Sherwood Valley, Men- 

 Fig. 30. Carex Hender- docino Co-> Dud i ey _ 



sonii Bailey. Refs.: Carex Hendersonii Bailey, Proc. Am. Acad. 22: 



o, inflorescence, X 2 /s; b, 115 (1886); Kuk., in Engler, Pflzr. 420 : 527 (1909). "C. laxiflora 

 scale, X 4; c, perigynium, Lam. var. plantaginea Boott" Olnev, Proc. Am. Acad. 8: 407 (1872); 

 X 4. W. Boott in S. Wats. Bot. Cal. 2: 245 (1880). 



