92 CYPERACEAE (SEDGE FAMILY) 



nium, usually bearing a beak half its length: pistillate scales acute (except 

 in Nos. 3 and 4): stigmas rarely 2. SPHAERIDIOPHORAE Drejer. Low 

 species in dry places, the leaves all radical. No. 4 is dioecious. 



* Spike one, androgynous. FILIFOLIAE Tuckm. 



3. Carex filifolia Nutt. Gen. 2: 204. 1818. Caespitose: culms slender, ob- 

 tusely angled and smooth, 1-3 dm. high, when full grown longer than the 

 filiform rigid leaves, their bases surrounded by dry brown leafless sheaths 

 which at length break up into fibers: spike 1-3 cm. long, ferruginous or whitish, 

 bractless, the staminate portion sometimes nearly free from the pistillate por- 

 tion: perigynium broadly triangular-obovoid, thin, few-nerved or nerveless, 

 scabrous or slightly hairy above, abruptly contracted into a short, stout, white- 

 hyaline entire beak, about the length or shorter than the very broad hyaline- 

 margined clasping scale: perigynium containing a short serrate racheola. (C. 

 oreocharis Holm. Am. Jour. Sci. IV. 9: 358. 1900.) Dry plains and moun- 

 tains from Colorado westward and northward. 



3a. Carex filifolia miser Bailey, Proc. Am. Acad. 22: 122. 1886. Low, 

 usually 5-10 cm. high, the leaves very rigid: pistillate portion of the spike not 

 conspicuous: pistillate scales much narrower than in the species, the margins 

 scarcely hyaline: perigynium much smaller and flatter, entirely concealed 

 under the scale, oblong-obovate, smooth. (C. elynoides Holm. 1. c. 356.) 

 Alpine in Colorado and westward to the Sierras. 



4. Carex scirpoidea Michx. Fl. Bor. Am. 2: 171. 1803. Creeping: culms in 

 flower short, elongating, 1-4 dm. high in fruit and exceeding the broad and 

 flat leaves, more or less scabrous on the angles at least above, the basal sheaths 

 not splitting into fibers: spike ferruginous, linear or club-shaped, 1-5 cm. 

 long, occasionally with 1 or 2 accessory spikes at base: perigynium ovate or 

 obovate, hairy, lightly nerved, about the length (or a little longer) of the 

 ciliate more or less obtuse scale: scales on the staminate plant hyaline-margined, 

 not ciliate. High mountains; Colorado and Utah, northward and westward. 



* * Spikes two to several, the lower occasionally peduncled or sometimes rad- 

 ical: perigynium contracted below, usually bearing two prominent ribs, the 

 very short or often prolonged beak slightly 2-toothed. MONTANAE Fries (in 

 part). 



i Culms upright, as long or longer than the leaves: spikes closely flowered, 

 mostly aggregated at the top of the culm. 



5. Carex pennsylvanica Lam. Encycl. 3: 388. 1789. Extensively creeping: 

 culms few, slender, 1-3 dm. high: staminate spike conspicuous, 1-2 cm. long, 

 often club-shaped, sessile or shortly peduncled, sometimes pistillate at the 

 top: pistillate spikes 1-4, the lower one very rarely 2-3 cm. remote, the upper 

 ones bractless, the lower sometimes subtended by a short and subulate brown 

 bract: perigynium globose or roundish-obovoid, abruptly contracted into a 

 short or often long beak, usually shorter than the acute or cuspidate brown or 

 rarely whitish scale. Dry, sandy plains; a variable species, widely distrib- 

 uted. 



6. Carex deflexa Hornem, Plantel. Ed. 3. 1: 938. 1821. This species does 

 not occur in our range, but the following varieties are rather common. 



6a. Carex deflexa Farwellii Brit. Fl. 1: 334. 1896. Rather stiff, 1-3 dm. 

 high, in dense tufts: most of the culms somewhat exceeding the leaves: stam- 

 inate spike prominent and erect, 6-10 mm. long, sessile or very short- 

 peduncled: pistillate spikes two or three, all scattered, the uppermost at or 

 near the base of the staminate spike, the lowest usually very prominently 

 peduncled and subtended by a conspicuous bract which surpasses the culm, 

 all rather compactly 3-8-flowered, green, or brown and green: radical spikes 

 usually abundant: perigynium oval, obtusely 3-angled, pubescent, the beak 

 as long as the body: scales large and sharp, equaling or exceeding the peri- 

 gynium. C. deflexa media Bailey. Mountains; Montana and Colorado to 

 Oregon. 



