tEPOKT OF THB STATE BOTANIST. 25 



Sterile spike clavate or linear, sessile or stalked ; fertile 2-5, 

 usually the upper one or'^wo sessile at the base of the sterile spike, 

 the others scattered, tne lowest often remote, all on short or 

 long peduncles and erect, or sometimes the one or two lower 

 ones spreading; densely or loosely flowered; bracts leafy, 

 partly sheathing, mostly exceeding the culm ; perigynia ovate, 

 obovate or suboval, nerved, with a short, abruptly bent, or long 

 tapering recurved bilid beak (^the latter short and barely curved 

 in 74; fruit easily detached. 70-74. 



•ft Perigynia acutely angled. 



Sterile spike clavate, short or long-i)eduncled ; fertile spikes 

 3-5, mostly scattered on long filiform drooping or erect-spread- 

 ing peduncles. Leaves narrow, three-veined. 75-7 G. 



Sterile spike clavate, stalked ; fertile spikes 2-5, mostly distant 

 on erect., partly or wholly included sCalks, 3-S flowered ; bracts as 

 long as the sheaths or obsolete. Leaves 3'-12' wide or more, 

 three- veined, (narrow and one-veined in SO). 77-80. 



ft Perigynia obtusely angled. 



Sterile spike linear, f wide ; fertile spikes small, erect or 

 drooping ; bracts obsolete, or leafy and equaling their sheaths ; 

 perigynia minute, light or olive-brown. Leaves setaceous, or 

 involute when old 81-82. 



Plant dioecious. Fertile spike cylindrical, dark purple ; peri- 

 gynia ovate, densely pubescent. A mountain species. 83. 



Sterile spike clavate or linear, sessile or short-peduncled ; fertile 

 spikes 1-5, the upper one or two near the cterile, the others sub- 

 approximate or sometimes subdistant and the lowest remote, 

 (umbellate in 81), 3-10 densely or subloosely flowered, globose 

 or short oblong, mostly sessile ; perigynia subrotund, suboval, 

 obovate or ova'e, densely or lightly pubescent, with an abrupt 

 bilid beak; bracts mostly scalelike, sometimes short leaf-like, 

 (perigynia acutely angle;! in 93.) 84-93. 



ft Perigynia slightly inflated. 



Sterile spike clavate or linear, stalked, often fertile at the 



apex ; fertile spikes 2-4, straight or flexuose, cylindrical or sub- 



clavate, densely or loosely flowered ; bracts leaf-like, the lowest 



sheathing, mostly exceeding the culm, (the upper ones setaceous 



in 98) ; perigynia three-angled, ovate or spindle-shaped, with a 



long or short tapering beak. 94-98. 



tt Perigynia moderately inflated. 

 4 



