322 Monograph of North American Car ice*. 



Obs. The leaves are sometimes almost smooth. Color of 



the whole plant dull green. 

 /5. costata : spiculis majoribus, fructibus valde costatis, va- 



ginis exterioribus atropurpureis. 

 C. virescens /3. costata, Dewey car. 1. c. 

 C. costata, Schw. anal. tab. car. 1. c. 

 Hab. On rocky hills. Flowers in the beginning of June. 

 Obs. This variety is pretty constantly much taller, and larger 



in all its parts than the ordinary C. virescens ; it does not, 



however, on re-examination, appear to be a distinct specie. 



47. Carex hirsuta, Willdenow. 



C. spicis ternis, ovato-oblongis, erectis, suprema brevi-pe- 

 dunculata, caeteris ovatis, subsessilibus, bracteatis, omnibus 

 approximatis, densifloris ; fructibus subrotundo-ovatis, 

 nervosis, obtusis, ore integris, glabris, gluma ovata acumi- 

 nata longioribus ; foliis vaginisque pubescentibus. 



C. hirsuta, Willd. sp. pi. iv. p. 252. Schk. car. t. Www. f. 

 172 Purshfl. i. p. 40. Dewey car. 1. c. ix. p. 260. Elliott 

 sk. i. p. 538. 



Culm 12 — 13 inches high, erect, triquetrous, scabrous, leafy. Leaves about 

 a line and a half broad, longer than the culm, generally as well as the 

 sheaths, strigosely pubescent, but sometimes nearly smooth; exterior 

 ones purplish at the base. Spikes 3, very rarely 4 ; terminal one attenu- 

 ate at the base by the decurrent sterile glumes, thus giving it a peduncu- 

 late appearance ; the others on very short peduncles, each with a folia- 

 ceous bractea at the base. Glumes acuminate, mucronate. Fruit 

 obscurely triangular, prominently veined, pubescent when young, but 

 perfectly smooth when mature. 



Hab. On moist rocky hill sides and in meadows. Canada to 

 Georgia. Flowers about the end of May. 



Obs. This species strongly resembles C. virescens, but it dif- 

 fers in its shorter and thicker spikes, and in the fruit being 

 quite smooth when mature. 



