334 Monograph of North American Carices, 



bearing- fertile florets either at the summit or at the base: glumes red- 

 dish-brown, oblong-lanceolate. Fertile spikes usually 3, sometimes 2? 

 rarely 4, approximate, ovate, densely fruited, about half an inch long, 

 on very short inclosed peduncles, the lowest one occasionally an inch or 

 more distant from the rest ; bractece foliaceous, exceeding the culm i 

 glumes ovate-lanceolate, brownish-red, shorter than the fruit. Fruit 

 ovate, a little inflated at the base, strongly nerved, reflexed, attenuated 

 into a curved beak. 



Hab. In meadows, particularly in mountainous districts ; 

 Canada to New-York ; rare. The most southern station 

 for this plant with which we are acquainted, is Philipstown, 

 in the Highlands of New-York. 



Obs. This species, which resembles the European plant in 

 every respect, except in the terminal spike being occasion- 

 ally androgynous, is not described by Muhlenberg, in his 

 Descnpti graminum, though specimens of it, from New- 

 England, exist in his herbarium, and it is enumerated in 

 the second edition of his catalogue. It appears to be a 

 Northern species. In a mature state, every part of the 

 plant is of a greenish yellow colour. It sometimes occurs 

 but 3 or 4 inches high. 



67. Carex (Ederi, Lin. 



C. spica sterili brevi-pedunculata ; fertilibus subternis, ovatis, 

 approximatis, subpedunculatis,densifloris ; fructibus ovato- 

 globosis, horiiontalibus, rostro recto terminatis. 



C. CEderi, Lin. Mich.ji. i. p. 171. Eng. bot.X. 1773. Dewey 

 car. 1. c. x. p. 38. 



C. flava, patula, Host. gram. p. 48. t. 64. Schk. car. ii. p. 

 56. t. F. f. 26. 



Culm 8 — 1& inches high, straight and erect, leafy below, obtusely triangu- 

 lar, smooth. Leaves narrow, smooth, shorter than the culm. Sterile 

 spike nearly sessile, lanceolate, su-btrigonous, often androgynous, bear- 

 ing fertile florets both at the base and summit; glumes brown, lanceo- 

 late. Fertile spikes usually 3, densely fruited, thick, sometimes with a 

 ew sterile florets at the summit, closely approximate, or with the lowest 

 spike more or less distant : bracteaj long, flat, foliaceous ; glumes ovate- 



