386 North American Cyjyeracecp. 



Hab. Rocky mountains, and barren grounds between 

 lat. 64® and the Arctic sea, Dr. Richardson ! 



Obs. I can perceive no essential difference between Eu- 

 ropean specimens of E. spicata and those from the Rocky 

 Mountains, from which Prof. Dewey dr^w his description of 

 Kobresia fiUformis, except that in very mature specimens of 

 the American plant the spike is somewhat more loosely 

 flowered. The name under which the plant is described in 

 Siiliman's Journal is credited to Dr. Torrey by some mistake. 



Tribe VIIL CARICEiE. 



Flowers diclinous. Scales of the spikes imbricated on 

 all sides. Nut wholly enclosed in an urceolate or bottle- 

 shaped perigynium.* 



CAREX, Linn. 



Spikes one or several, androgynous or unisexual, rarely 

 dioecious. Stain. Fl. Stamens 8. Fist. Fl. Perigy- 

 nium bidentate, emarginate or truncate at the apex. Style 

 2 or 3-cleft. Nut lenticular, plano-convex, or triangular, 

 crowned with the lower portion of the persistent and continuous, 

 or rarely articulated, style. — Culms triangular, leafy through- 

 out, or only at the base ; spikes terminal or axillary, distant or 

 approximate, or variously aggregated. 



Carex, Linn. gen. pi. no. 1946 ; Jicss. gen. p. 36 ; Lam^Jc. 

 ill. t. 752 ; SchJcuhr, car. 1. p. 1. et tab. mult. ; R. Brown, 



* The urceolate perigynium of Carex, Uncinia, &c. is considered as 

 resulting from the union of two scales, like those which enclose the 

 flowers of Elyna and Kobresia, and not as analogous to the setiform peri- 

 gynium of Scirpese and Rhynchosporea;. In the former case it repre- 

 sents bracts of the second order ; in the latter it may be viewed as a 

 rudimentary perianth. 



