300 Monograph of North American Car ices. 



figured either by Schkuhr or any other author to whom 

 we have had access. 



** Spikes several, aggregated into a head. 

 a. Summit staminiferous. 



12. Carex cephhalophora, Muhlenberg. 



C. spiculis in formam ellipticam aggregatis ; fructibus ovatis, 



margine superne scabris, glumis ovatis mucronato-arista- 



tis subsequalibus. 

 C. cephalophora, Wittd. sp.pl.iv. p. 220. Schk. car. t. Hhh. 



f. 133. Purshfl. i. p. 35. excl. syn. Mich. Muhl. gram. 



p. 118. Elliott sk. ii. p. 516. Dewey 1. c. vii. p. 269. No. 1. 



Root fibrous. Culm 1 — 2 feet high, almost naked, or only leafy at the 

 bottom, tough and wiry, erect or decumbent, acutely triangular, and 

 retrorsely scabrous on the margin, striate, sheathed below. Leaves long- 

 linear, furrowed ; midrib rounded and prominent. Spikes 3 — 4 — 6 of a 

 more or less cylindric shape, growing in contact at the base so as to 

 form a distinct head, which appears to be trifid below, obtuse. Sterile 

 florets at the summit of each spikelet. Glumes shorter than the fruit, 

 ovate, carinate, cuspidate, and minutely ciliate on the margin, of a green- 

 ish colour. Two subulate bracts at the base of the compound spike, 

 about equal to it in length, generally spreading or recurved. Fruit 

 ovate, compressed, nerved or nerveless, with an acuminate, recurved, 

 bifid apex, serrulate on the margin. Seed ovate. 



Had. On grassy hill sides and shady river banks, often in 

 very dry situations ; Canada to Carolina : common. May. 



Obs. This species which usually grows in tufts in dry soils, 

 is seldom above twenty inches high ; but on river banks 

 I have often found it growing 4 or 5 feet in length, de- 

 cumbent among the bushes. 



*** Spikes distinct (not aggregated into a head.) 

 a. Summit staminiferous. 

 12. Carex bromoides, Schkuhr. 



C. spiculis pluribus (4 — 6) alternis, oblongis, erectis, supre- 

 ma superne staminifera, caeteris pistilliferis, vel androgynis 



