o48 Monograph of North American Carices. 



differ from the description of both this botanist and 

 Schkuhr, in the form of the pistillate glume. 



82. Carex laxiflora, Lamarck. 



C. spica sterili subsessili, fertilibus subtribus, sublaxifloris, 



remotis, pedunculatis, erectis; fructibus ovato-oblongis? 



ventricosis, obtusis, subnitidis, gluma ovata cuspidata lon- 



gioribus. 

 C. laxiflora, Lam. enc. iii. p. 378. Willd. sp. pi. iv. p. 281. 



Schk. car. t. Kkk. f. 141. Mich.fi. ii. p. Purshfl. i. p. 



43. Muhl. gram. p. 251. Elliott sh. i. p. 549. 

 C. grisea, Wahlenberg secund. Muhlenberg. 



Culm a foot or eighteen inches high, (sometimes much lower) erect and 

 firm, triquetrous, smooth. Leaves longer than the culm, flat, scabrous 

 on the margin ; sheaths white on the inside. Sterile spike short, sub- 

 pedunculate, scarcely overtopping the uppermost fertile, very narrow 

 and inconspicuous ; glumes lanceolate, acute and mucronate, pale 

 brown ; the lower ones ciliate. Fertile spikes usually 3, the two upper 

 ones generally rather approximate, the lowest from one to four inches 

 distant, on a pretty long peduncle ; all of them oblong, often few-flower- 

 ed ; glumes ovate, whitish or pale green, acuminate, and lengthened 

 out into a loDg scabrous rostrum, which, sometimes, especially in the 

 lower part of the spike, projects beyond the fruit. Fruit obscurely tri- 

 angular, a little shining, appearing distinctly inflated when mature, not 

 contracted at the base ; orifice minute, obscurely and minutely biden- 

 tate. , 



Hab. In woods and wet meadows ; Canada to Georgia ; 

 common. Flowers in May. 



Obs. This is the species which is generally considered as 

 the C. laxiflora of Lamark, but whether correctly or not, 

 cannot certainly be determined by his imperfect description. 

 It resembles the preceding plant, but differs in having 

 always at least three fertile spikes, its considerably larger 

 fruit, sessile sterile spike, he. Our specimens agree ex- 

 actly with those of C. laxiflora in Muhlenberg's herbarium, 

 The southern plant is seldom above 6 inches high. 



