100 CYPERACEAE (SEDGE FAMILY) 



ceding but the spikes (3 or 4) globular, strictly sessile, and very densely aggre- 

 gated into an ovoid-triangular head, the lower spikes of which are squarrose, 

 or the lower one rarely distinct : perigynium broadly ovate or nearly circular in 

 outline, thin and whitish, very conspicuously squarrose, broader than the 

 ovate and muticous black scale. [C. melanocephala Turcz.(?)] Mountains; 

 Wyoming and Colorado to California. 



39. Carex alpina Swartz, Lilj. Sv. Fl. Ed. 2. 26. 1798. Culms very slender, 

 1-5 dm. high, smooth, longer than the narrow leaves: spikes 2-4, small, 5-12 

 mm. long, mostly compactly flowered, black or black and green, closely ag- 

 gregated, erect and capitate, the lowest very short-stalked and usually sub- 

 tended by a green bract: perigynium ovate or elliptic, obscurely nerved or 

 nerveless, with a short slightly notched beak, green or fuscous, commonly a 

 little longer than the ovate, black, nearly obtuse scale. High mountains, 

 Colorado and northward. 



SUBGENUS II. Vignea. Staminate flowers few and inconspicuous, borne 

 at the base or apex of the pistillate spikes. Pistillate flowers in short, sessile 

 spikes (spike Single in No. 40), which are commonly more or less aggregated 

 into heads, or even panicled. Cross section of the perigynium plano-convex 

 in outline. Styles two and achenium lenticular. The spiked, and especially 

 the terminal one, usually have contracted bases when the staminate flowers 

 are borne below, and empty scales at the top when the staminate flowers are 



borne above. 



i 



12. Staminate flowers borne at the top of the pistillate spikes; or in the Are- 

 nariae spikes often wholly staminate and the plants occasionally dioecious. 

 ACROARRHENAE Anderss. 



* Spike one and simple: plants very small. NARDINAE; Tuckm. 



40. Carex Redowskyana C. A. Mey. Gyp. Nov. t. 4. 1831. Creeping: 

 culms 1-2 dm. high, longer than the rigid, erect or spreading leaves: spike 

 5-15 cm. long, loosely flowered: perigynium ovate, prominently nerved, gradu- 

 ally and conspicuously beaked, spreading at maturity, longer than the acute 

 scale. C. gynocrates. In the high mountains; Colorado to British America. 



* * Spikes green when mature, more than one. 

 H- Spikes few-flowered, distinct, often remote. 



41. Carex tenella Schk. Riedgr. 23. f. 104. 1801. Tufted and stoloniferous: 

 culms very slender, almost capillary, 1-4 dm. high, about the length of the 

 narrow, loose leaves: spikes scattered, 1-6-flowered: perigynium shortly oval, 

 rounded on the outside, finely nerved, abruptly and minutely beaked, longer 

 than the very thin scale. Swamps throughout our range. 



42. Carex vallicola Dewey, Am. Journ. Sci. II. 32: 40. 1861. Culm 1-2 

 dm. high, very slender, slightly scabrous: leaves 1 mm. broad, shorter than the 

 stem : bracts roughly cuspidate from a broad hyaline-margined base, the lowest 

 equaling or exceeding its spike: head 1-3 cm. long, linear-oblong, composed of 

 4-7 narrowly oblong contiguous sessile spikes which have a conspicuous 

 column of staminate flowers at the apex: scales chestnut-colored, mem- 

 branaceous with very broad hyaline margins, clasping at the base, broadly 

 ovate, acute or the scabrous keel prolonged into a short mucro: perigynium 

 pale brown, obovate, abruptly attenuated to the base and to the obliquely 

 cut entire beak, convex on the outer side and concave on the inner, nerveless, 

 sparsely serrate above on the obtuse margins, about as long and narrower than 

 the scale. Colorado and Wyoming to Idaho. 



43. Carex eleocharis Battey, Mem. Torr. Club 1: 6. 1889. Very slender but 

 stiff, 1.5 dm. high, both leaves and culm filiform and smooth: spikes 2 or 3, 

 each bearing 1-3 flowers, closely aggregated into a very small and apparently 

 monostachyous head, evidently staminate above: perigynium short-ovate, tur- 



