316 Monograph of North American Carices. 



Culm 2 feet or more in height, triquetrous and very scabrous above, leafy 

 chiefly below the middle, much furrowed. Leaves several Hues in 

 breadth, scabrous on the margin, shorter than the culm. Spikes 8 to 

 12, (sometimes more) crowded into an ovate head, so that the form of 

 each cannot be distinguished when ripe ; the pseudo-capitulum exhibiting 

 a cristate appearance. At the base of the spikelets are short subulate 

 bractae. Glumes ovate-lanceolate, brown, shorter than the fruit. Fruit 

 acuminate, distinctly winged, strongly serrato-ciliate, divergingly bifid, 

 regularly and distantly striate, diverging; but not horizontal. 



Hab. In wet bushy places, Massachusetts to Pennsylvania ; 

 not uncommon. Flowers in the beginning of June. 



Obs. This species is nearly related to C. straminea, with 

 which it is confounded in Muhlenberg's herbarium. It is 

 easily distinguished by its compact head of spikelets and 

 diverging fruit. Sometimes it occurs four feet in height. 



37. Carex festucacea, Schkuhr. 



C. spiculis obovatis, (5-8) sub-approximatis, bracteatis ; 



fructibus subrotundo-ovatis, rostratis, bidentatis, alatis, 



margine ciliato-serratis, gluma ovato-lanceolata longi- 



oribus. 

 C. festucacea, Wittd. sp. pi. iv. 242. Schk. car. t. Mmm. f. 



173. Pursh fl. i. p. 38. Muhl. gram. p. 249. Dewey 



car. 1. c. viii. p. 96. Elliott sk. ii. p. 537. 



Culm about two and a half feet high, triangular, leafy, sometimes decum- 

 bent, curved at the summit when the fruit is ripe. Leaves narrow, 

 spreading, shorter than the culm. Spikelets usually about 6, but occa- 

 sionally 9 or even 12, sometimes rather distant, at first cylindrical- 

 oblong, but at length obovate, or somewhat clavate, the base being con- 

 tracted and composed of closely appressed sterile glumes : when fully 

 ripe they are nearly globose. Glumes whitish, acute, shorter than the 

 fruit, with a narrow green keel. Fruit broadly ovate, plano-convex, 

 acuminated into a short beak ; margin distinctly, but not broadly winged, 

 ciliato-serrulate. 



Hab. In meadows and in dry rocky woods, common through- 

 out the United States. Flowers in May. 



