Carex.] GRAMINACEAE, 489 
8 var. — Plant densely tufted, shorter but stronger. Leaves only half 
the length of the stem. Spikes oblong-lanceolate, greenish-rufous, their 
staminate portion, excepting the terminal spike, much shorter than the 
pistillate portion, which, carries 9—14 florets; the glumes and utricles 
aan the latter quite flat. 
Kauai, Waimea (M. & B. no. 391) in herb. Cornell Un 
ae species is known from Mauritius and Bourbon, Cey at Australia (C. gracilis, R. 
. C, propinqua, Nees. — Kunth, Enum. Pl. IT, 396. — Stems 1/2:—1 ft. 
slightly scabrous at the acute or filiform point, carinate. Spikes andro- 
gynous, staminate at the base (the terminal one entirely Jonny — 
very short, about 3“, thick ovoid, 8—10 crowded at the en 
in a close head or cluster which is 6—8“ long, 5—6“ broad, and Caled 
by a lanceolate or subulate bract of scarcely 1‘, besides 1 or 2 seinetiee’ 
and broader ones. Glumes 1'/2“, ovate, acute, 1-nerved, the staminate 
ones pointed or mucronate, pale olivaceous throughout, the viounes ones 
pale along the keel and hyaline margins, otherwise olivaceous, with several 
faint lines. Utricle 13/4”, thin, pale olivaceous, ovate, drawn out into an 
acute bicuspid neck, plano-convex, the sharp margins fimbriolat 
denticulate. Achene smaller than the utricle, biconvex, Bhat ihe 
pale brown. Style terminal, shortly bifid with erect bran — C. festiva, 
Dewey. — Steu del, l. c p. 198. — Mann, Enum. no. oy — Beklir. in 
yt 
Hawaii! Contr Plateau ; collected also by Mann and Remy. Nearly akin 
00. le pe ina, L. — W. ast of America from the straits of sacetiak to Alaska, Kam- 
ince Gencatana Noses 
Orper XCV. GRAMINACEAE. . 
Flowers hermaphrodite or unisexual, in spikelets. Each spikelet consists 
of 3 or more (very rarely 2 or 1) chaff-like concave glumes (or bracts) 
arranged alternately on opposite sides of the spikelet, their concave face 
toward the axis. Two (sometimes 1 or 3) lowest glumes empty and often 
differently shaped from the others; the succeeding or flowering glumes 
_ (lower paleae of most authors) each enclosing a smauer scale or palea 
(upper palea of most authors, which represents the primary leaf — vorblatt— 
of the flower) placed either hetween the glume and the axis of the spikelet, 
with its back to the axis, or nearly opposite the glume at the end of the 
axis. Within the palea, or apparently between the flowering glume and 
the palea, is the real flower consisting of 2 (rarely 3) lodicules or minute 
Seales besides the stamens and pistil. The flowering glume and palea 
are, however, generally included in the term flower. Stamens usually 3, 
