324 Monograph of North American Carices. 



49. Carex digitalis, Muhlenberg, t. xxvi. f. 1. 



C. spicis subquaternis, distantibus, gracilis, pedunculatis, 

 sublaxifloris, cernuis, suprema androgyna apice fructifera, 

 caeteris omnibus fertilibus ; fructibus oblongis, subtrique- 

 tris, obtusis, glabris, gluma oblonga mucronata longiori- 

 bus. 



C. digitalis, Willd. sp. pi. iv. p. 298. Pursh fl. i. p. 44. 

 Muhl. gram. p. 255. Elliott sk. ii. p. 551. 



C. gracillima, Schw. an. tab. car. 1. c. Dewey car. viii. p. 98. 



Culm a foot and a half high, slender, but erect, (rarely declining) growing 

 separately or in clusters, subtriangular, leafy below, scabrous above, 

 deeply striate. Leaves about two lines broad, shorter than the culm ; 

 lower ones abbreviate, with the sheaths purplish at the base. Spikes 

 very generally 4, linear and filiform, an inch and a half or more in 

 length; terminal one on a filiform peduncle, the upper fourth part 

 fertile, or sometimes entirely sterile: fertile spikes 15 — 20-flowered; 

 florets rather distinctly imbricate. Glumes of the sterile florets closely 

 imbricate, ovate-lanceolate, acute, white with the keel green ; of the 

 fertile florets ovate, ending in an abrupt point or short bristle, about 

 half as long as the fruit. Fruit when mature subovate, very obtuse, 

 with a minute oblique orifice, slightly nerved. 



Hab. In wet meadows, particularly in mountainous districts ; 

 New-England to Pennsylvania; common. Flowers in 

 May. 



Obs. The whole plant is smooth and pale green. The ter- 

 minal spike very commonly bears a few fertile florets at the 

 extremity, which is a circumstance not noticed by Willde- 

 now or Muhlenberg, and induced us to consider this plant 

 a distinct species, especially as we have a Carex from 

 Cherokee, which more exactly agrees with Willdenow's 

 description ; but as his plant was a native of Pennsylva- 

 nia, and does not differ essentially, by the description, from 

 ours, we suppose they are identical. 



