Monograph of North American Carices. 303 



approximate, each containing at least 9, and frequently 12 florets, of 

 which but one or two at the summit are sterile and deciduous. At the 

 base of the lowest spike is a setaceous bractea overtopping the culm. 

 Also another shorter beneath the next spike. Glumes generally only 

 about half the length of the fruit, obtuse. Fruit ovate or oblong-lanceo- 

 late, flat, aud a little concave on the inner side, with a very distinct 

 acute margin, which is ciliate-scabrous under a lens. 



Hab. In moist woods and along the margin of wet meadows ; 



rather common. Flowers in May. Grows in dense tufts. 

 Obs. Sterile florets rarely seen, except in the flowering state. 



Spikes yellowish green. 



16. Carex disperma, Dewey. 



C. spiculis subternis, remotiusculis subbifloris, erectiusculis, 

 infima bracteata; fructibus ovatis, obtusiusculis, nervosis, 

 plano-convexis, glabris, scabro-marginatis, ore integro 

 gluma ovata obtusa submucronata duplo longioribus. 



C. disperma, Dewey 1. c. viii. p. 266. t. 1. f. 3. 



Culm 6 — 12, slender, triquetrous, scabrous above, leafy below. Leaves 

 chiefly proceeding from numerous annotinous shoots, rather shorter than 

 the culm. Spikes rarely more than 3, sometimes 2 or 4, rather distant, 

 mostly with 2 fertile flowers, (sometimes one or three flowered) and a 

 sterile floret between and above them ; the lowest, sometimes the two 

 lower, supported by an ovate bractea often ending in a long slender point. 

 Staminiferous glume lanceolate, white; pislilliferous ovate, acute or 

 cuspidate. Fruit ovate, slightly acuminate, but not acute when mature, 

 much longer than the glume, with a distinct acute scabrous margin, 

 spreading a little, but not divaricate. 



Hab. In wet mountain woods ; Massachusetts, particularly 

 in Williamstown. Dewey. Flowers in May and June. 



Obs. 1 . When the spikelets are one-flowered, the barren floret 

 is lateral. 2. This species is nearly allied to C. loliacea, 

 L. (Schk. car. t. Pp. f. 104.) but differs in having the 

 Sterile flowers superior. It still more resembles C. gracilis, 

 Schk. car. t. E. f. 24. which Schkuhr considers but a 

 variety of the preceding. 



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