Monograph of North American Carices. 3o9 



Obs. There is a variety of this species with short and 

 almost ovate fertile spikes. The flat leaves and geminate 

 sterile spikes distinguish it from C.Jiliformis, 



111. Carex lacustris, Willdenovv. 



C. spicis sterilibus subquaternis ; fertilibus binis vel ternis.. 

 erectis, oblongo-cylindraceis, brevi-pedunculatis ; fruc- 

 tibus oblongis, multinerviis, subrostratris, glabris, bifur- 

 catis, gluma oblonga-mucronata paulo-longioribus. 



C. lacustris, Willd. sp. pi. iv. p. 306. Schk. car. t. Ooo. f. 

 152. Purshfl. i. p. 45. Dewey car. 1. c. x. p. 43. 



C. riparia, Muhl. gram. p. 259. Elliott sk. ii. p. 554. 



Culm 3 — 5 feet high, very thick and strong, sharply triquetrous, leafy, 

 scabrous above. Leaves erect, longer than the culm, 4 — 5 lines broad, 

 carinate, of a thick and coarse texture, somewhat glaucous ; sheath 

 white above on the inside. Sterile spikes 3 — 4, the terminal one cylin- 

 drical, the others shorter and thicker, of a bright brown color ; glumes 

 oblong, obtuse or emarginate, mucronate. Fertile spikes 2 — 3, oblong- 

 cylindrical, thick, and densely fruited, somewhat attenuate at the base, 

 sometimes sterile at the apex ; upper one nearly sessile ; the lower 

 on short peduncles, erect; ghimes oblong, acuminate or cuspidate, with 

 a scabrous point, brown, rather shorter than the fruit. Fruit oblong, 

 with a conical and somewhat rostrate summit; brown, smooth, dis- 

 tinctly nerved ; orifice bifurcate. 



Hab. In deep swamps, and on the margin of lakes and ponds ; 

 Canada to South Carolina ; common. Flowers in the 

 beginning of June. 



Obs. Muhlenberg, Elliott, and other botanists, consider the 

 C. lacustris as a variety of the C. riparia, a common Euro- 

 pean species, and indeed it does not appear to be very 

 distinct. 



112. Carex cherokeensis *. Tab. 25. fig. 1. 



C spicis sterilibus 2 — 4 ; fertilibus subquaternis, distanti- 

 bus, ovato-cylindraceis, pedunculatis, apice saepe stam- 

 iniferis, subpatulis, fructibus ovatis, subtriquetris, longe- 



