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542 MACKENZIE: NOTES ON CAREX 
Carex Farwellit (Brit.) Mackenzie, Bull. Torrey Club 37: 244. 
I9I0. 
Clumps medium-sized, densely or loosely cespitose, hardly 
stoloniferous, the rootstocks ascending; culms 5-20 cm. high, 
slender, usually exceeding the leaves, smooth or slightly roughened 
under the inflorescence, aphyllopodic or phyllopodic; basal spikes 
usually numerous. Fertile culms with several leaves with well- 
developed blades inserted towards the base, the blades ascend- 
ing, I-2 mm. wide, usually less than 6 cm. long, roughened on the 
margins and towards the apex; leaves of sterile culms more 
numerous and with longer and somewhat wider blades; stami- 
nate spike sessile or nearly so, erect, 3-8 mm. long, 1 mm. wide, 
exceeding the contiguous pistillate spike, the scales ovate-oblong, 
closely appressed, acutish, with green midrib and hyaline margins 
and strongly tinged with reddish brown; pistillate spikes one or 
two, sessile or short-peduncled (and with some additional widely 
separated basal ones), approximate or somewhat separate, sub- 
orbicular or short-oblong, 3-5 mm. long, 3-4 mm. wide, containing 
3-10 ascending perigynia; lower bract 0.5-5 cm. long, not sheathing 
and hardly colored at base; the upper much shorter; scales ovate, 
acute to acuminate, or cuspidate, wider but shorter than the mature 
perigynia, strongly tinged with reddish- or purplish-brown, the 
midrib green and the margins hyaline; perigynia short-pubescent, 
3-4-5 mm. long, obovoid, obtusely triangular, 2-ribbed but other- 
wise nerveless or nearly so, the body 1.5-2.5 mm. long, 1 mm. 
wide, tapering to a stipitate base 0.5—-1.5 mm. long, and abruptly 
contracted into a bidentate beak 0.75-1.25 mm. long; achenes tri- 
angular (rather obtusely), short-oval, 1.5 mm. long; stigmas three. 
This characteristic species of the western mountains has been 
given a great deal of study by me in an endeavor to ascertain 
definitely whether it represented an aggregate of more than one 
species or not. As a result I have come to the conclusion that 
but one variable species is represented and that the notable 
variations shown in individual plants are to be explained by en- 
vironmental conditions. The species varies from densely cespitose 
in alpine or subalpine situations to loosely cespitose in more pro- 
tected localities; these more loosely cespitose plants have the 
leaf-blades of the sterile culms much more developed and in all 
respects show a stronger vegetative growth; the scales of the basal 
spikes are inclined to be strongly cuspidate’ and the perigynia 
range in length from 3.75 to 4.5 mm. with a beak as long as the 
y- Such plants answer to Carex Farwellii and are quite dif- 
