556 
CYPERACEiE. (SEDGE FAMILY.) 
toothed orifice : bracts short, either green and slightly sheathing or 
auriculate at the base, or small and resembling the scales: scales 
dark brown or purple with white margins, fading lighter or some¬ 
times turning nearly white : staminate spike solitary ; the fertile 2- 
3, erect, nearly sessile. ( Culms mostly low and slender: leaves all 
radical, long and narroic.) — MontAna:. 
81. C* umbcllata, Schk. Culms very short; staminate spike 
sometimes with a few pistillate flowers; fertile spikes 4-5, ovoid, 
few-flowered; the uppermost close to the sterile spike and sessile, the 
rest on stalks arising from the base of the stem and of about equal 
height, appearing somewhat like a small corymb nearly concealed by 
the long grassy leaves ; perigynia ovoid, 3-angled, with a rather long 
abrupt beak, about the length of the ovate pointed scale. — Rocky 
hill-sides, New England to Penn. Growing in dense grassy tufts, 
with culms not exceeding 6*, and oftener not above half that height. 
82. C. Novae-Allglia;, Schw. Sterile spike on a short stalk; 
the fertile 2 -3, ovoid, nearly sessile, 3 - 5-jloiocrcd, more or less dis¬ 
tinct, the lowest with a green and bristle-shaped or colored and scale- 
like awned bract; perigynia obovoid, Wangled, attenuated at the base 
into a short stalk, minutely hairy, principally above, indistinctly nerv¬ 
ed, with a somewhat elongated 2-toothed beak deeply cleft on the inner 
side, a little longer than the ovate pointed scale. (C. colI6cta, Dew. 
C. varia, var. minor, Boott (including var. Emmonsii). C. lucdrum, 
Kunze, not of Willd. ?) — Var. Emmonsii has the fertile spikes 5-10- 
flowered, aggregated, the uppermost close to the base of the stami- 
nate; or varying occasionally with the lowest on a long stalk near 
the base of the culm, concealed by the long grassy leaves. (C. alp^s- 
tris, Schw. fy- Torr., not of Allioni. C. Davisii, Dew., not of Schw. 4* 
Torr. C. Emmonsii, Deic.) — Woody hills and mountains, N. New 
England to Michigan. — Grows in grassy tufts, with numerous very 
slender, often prostrate culms, varying from 4' - 15' in length. The 
var. is the prevailing form, but intermediate ones continually occur; 
differing in respect to the contiguity and size of the fertile spikes, an 
in the proximity of the uppermost to the base of the sterile one. The 
form of the perigynium varies with age; the mature ones in Kunze s 
figure of C. lucorum have the elongated beak of C. nigro-marginata, 
Schw. (possibly the C. lucorum of Willd.), whilst the plant delineate 
is clearly C. Novae-Angliae. 
83. C. Pennsylvuilica, Lam. Sterile spike commonly on a 
short stalk ; fertile 1-3, usually 2, approximate, nearly sessile, ovoi , 
4 - 6-; flowered, the lowest commonly with a colored, scale-like, long-men 
ed bract ; perigynia roundish-ovoid, with a short and abrupt minute y- 
toothed beak about the length of the ovate pointed chestnut-colore 
scale. (C. marginata, Muhl ) — Dry woods and hill-sides, New Eng¬ 
land to Michigan. 
