318 Monograph of North American Cariccs. 



Culm 6-12 inches high, triquetrous and subscabrous above, rather terete 

 below, strictly erect, leafy only at the base. Leaves very narrow, erect, 

 shorter than the culm, pale green. Spikes mostly 4, sometimes 3 or 5 ; 

 at first cylindrical-oblong, but ovate when mature, the uppermost one 

 furnished with numerous sterile scales at the base, which oive it a club- 

 shaped appearance ; the lower often with a long bractea at the base. 

 Glumes lanceolate, rather obtuse. Fruit broad-ovate, erect or spreading 

 horizontally, subcordate, nerved, slightly bifid, scabious on the margin. 



Hab. In wet meadows and woods ; common. Flowers in 

 May. 



Obs. This species is nearly allied to the preceding, and per- 

 haps is scarcely distinct. It is usually smaller in all its 

 parts, and the fruit only spreading ; not reflexed. But it 

 must be confessed, that these characters are by no means 

 constant. 



40. Carex curta, Goodenough. 



C. spiculis subsenis, subremotis, subcylindrico-ovatis ; tumi- 

 dis, sessilibus ; fructibus brevi-ovatis, plano-convexis, acu- 

 tiusculis, ore integris, erectis. 



C. curta, Willd. sp. pi. iv. p. 241. Schk. car. t. C. f. 13. 

 Purshfl. i. p. 37. Muhl. gram. p. 232. Dewey car. 1. c. 



viii. p. 93. 



C. canescens, L. Wahl. act. holm. 1803. p. 148. 



Culm about 2 feet high, nodding at the summit when the spikes are ma- 

 ture, leafy, triquetrous. Leaves narrow, about as long as the culm. 

 Spikelets 5-6, the two or three uppermost ones closely approximate, the 

 rest half an inch or more distant, when young sub-cylindric, but at length 

 obovate, the lowest furnished at the base with a short setaceous bractea. 

 Glumes ovate, whitish, acute, with a green keel, rather shorter than the 

 fruit. Fruit ovate, with a very short point, very convex on the exterior 

 side, slightly margined ; orifice appearing minutelybidentate under the 

 lens. 



Hab. In wet grassy places ; common. Canada to New- 

 York. Flowers in the middle of May. 



