CYPEKACEJS. (SEDGE FAMILY.) 525 



forming dense tufts. The fertile spikes do not exceed 2" - 3" in length, and are 

 about 1" broad. 



83. C. pe«lMllCl!f£ita, Muhl. Spikes 3-5, commonly 4, the uppermost 

 sterile with 2 -3 fertile flowers at the base, the rest fertile with a few staminate flowers 



at the apex, all on lour; stalks, remote, 1 - 2 of the lowest near the base of the culm ; 

 sheaths with green tips much shorter than the stalks ; perigynia with a long alien.' 

 uated base and a minutely notched orifice, somewhat downy, especially on the angles, 

 about the length of the broadly obovate abruptly awned or pointed dark-purple 

 scale. — Dry woods and rocky hill-sides, New England to Penn., Wisconsin, 

 and northward — Culms 4'- 10' high, prostrate at maturity, growing in tufts 

 partly concealed by the very long and narrow grassy leaves. 



§ 6. Perigynia with a straight or slightly bent more or less abrupt beak, hairy, not in- 

 flated, terminating in a membranaceous notched or 2-toothed orifice : bracts 

 short, either green aid slightly sheathing or auriculate at the base, or small 

 aud resembling the scales : scales dark brown or purple with white margins, 

 fading lighter or sometimes turning nearly white : staminate spike solitary : 

 the fertile 2 - 3, nearly sessile (except in No. 84), erect. (Culms mostly low 

 and slender : leaves ail radical, long and narrow.) — MontA.n^e. 



84. C. SimbeJliYfa, Schk. Culms very short ; staminate spike sometimes 

 with a few pistillate flowers ; fertile spikes 4-5, ovoid, few-flowered ; the upper- 

 most close to the sterile spike and sessile, the rest on stalks arising from the base of the 

 stem and of about e-otial height, appearing somewhat like a small corymb, nearly 

 concealed by the long grassy leaves ; perigynia ovoid, 3-anglcd, with a rather 

 long abrupt beak, about the length of the ovate pointed scale. — Rocky hill- 

 sides, New England to III., and northward. — Growing in dense grassy tufts, 

 with culms l'-3', rarely 6' high. 



85. C. rYovae-Aligliae, Schw. Sterile spike on a short stalk ; the fertile 

 2-3, ovoid, nearly sessile, 3 - 5-flowered, more or less distinct, the lowest with a 

 green and bristle-shaped or colored and scale-like awned bract ; perigynia obovoid, 

 3-angled, attenuated at the base into a short stalk, minutely hairy (principally 

 above), indistinctly nerved, with a somewhat elongated 2-toothed beak deeply cleft on 

 the inner side, a little longer than the ovate pointed scale. (C. collecta, Dew. 

 C. varia, var. minor, Boott (including var. Emmonsii). C. lucorum, Kunzc, not 

 of WiUd. ?) — Var. Emm6nsix has the fertile spikes 5 - 10-flowered, aggregated, 

 the uppermost close to the base of the staminate ; or varying occasionally with ■ 

 the lowest on a long stalk near the base of the culm, concealed by the long gras- 

 sy leaves. (C. alpestris, Sclav. $• Ton:, not of AUioni. C. Davisii, Dew., not of 

 Schw.fr Torr. C. Emmonsii, Dew.) — Woody hills and mountains, N. New 

 England to Ohio, and northward ; also southward along the Alleghanies. — 

 Grows in grassy tufts, with numerous very slender, often prostrate culms, vary- 

 ing from 4' -15' in length. The var. is the prevailing form, but intermediate 

 ones continually occur, differing in respect to the contiguity and size of the fer- 

 tile spikes, and in the proximity of the uppermost to the base of the sterile one. 

 The form of the perigynium varies with age ; the mature ones in Kunze's figure 

 of C. lucorum have the elongated beak of C. nigro-marginata, Schw. (possibly 

 the C. lucorum of WiUd.), whilst the plant delineated is clearly C. Novse-Angli.v 



