CYPERACEAE (SEDGE FAMILY) 95 



nodding peduncles: bracts foliaceous and sheathing: perigynium thin and 

 membranaceous, usually slender or oblong, tapering gradually into a dis- 

 tinct or long minutely toothed straight beak, smooth and shining (in No. 16 

 usually hairy on the angles and not lucid), mostly light-colored, somewhat 

 inflated; scales thin, white, tawny, or brown. HYMENOCHLAENAE Drejer. 

 Mostly slender and open-flowered lax-growing species. 



* Terminal spike all staminate: pistillate spikes oblong, club-shaped or cy- 

 lindrical (very small in No. 15) : perigynium few-nerved or nerveless, tawny 

 or whitish. FLEXILES Tuckm. 



15. Carex capillaris L. Sp. PI. 977. 1753. Usually densely caespitose: 

 culms very slender, varying from 3-30 cm. in height, much longer than the 

 numerous very narrow radical leaves: pistillate spikes 1-4, loosely 3-10- 

 flowered, long-exserted and nodding, the lower often very remote: perigynium 

 small, ovate or ovate-oblong, contracted into a nearly entire beak of about 

 half its length, about the length or longer than the white or tawny hyaline 

 scale. High mountains from Colorado westward and northward. A delicate 

 species, variable in size and in the length and shape of the pistillate scales. 



16. Carex ablata Bailey, Bot. Gaz. 13: 82. 1888. Stoloniferous: culm slen- 

 der, 3-5 dm. high, much longer than the short and rather broad, many-nerved, 

 lax radical leaves: bracts conspicuously and loosely sheathing, the lower more 

 or less leaf-like, the upper setaceous: pistillate spikes ferruginous, 2-3 cm. 

 long, the lower club-shaped and long-exserted, the upper more or less cylin- 

 drical and often sessile or nearly so and approximate: perigynium lanceolate, 

 slightly inflated, flattened, at first wholly or partly green, at length becoming 

 more or less ferruginous, obscurely nerved, hairy on the angles, tapering and 

 2-toothed, longer than the acute scale. C. frigida. Utah and Wyoming to 

 Oregon. 



17. Carex longirostris Torr. Ann. Lye. N. Y. 1: 71. 1824. Caespitose: culm 

 rather strong, 2-5 dm. high, obtusely angled, rather longer than the flat and 

 soft leaves: pistillate spikes 2-3, greenish- white, short, thick, nearly erect: 

 perigynium large, 2-nerved, green and shining, produced into a slender white- 

 ' tipped toothed beak of half or more its length: scale white, acute or cuspidate, 

 about the length of the perigynium. Colorado. 



7. Staminate spikes one or more: pistillate spikes two to several, stout, erect, 

 mostly shortly peduncled, somewhat squarrose or comose in appearance: peri- 

 gynium thick in texture, hairy, more or less spreading, distinctly and stoutly 

 straight-beaked, the teeth short: scales prominent. LASIOCARPAE Fries. 

 Stout, mostly tall species, in wet or grassy places. Our species falls under 

 the group Lanuginosae Carey. 



18. Carex lanuginosa Michx. Fl. Bor. Am. 2: 175. 1803. Stoloniferous: 

 culms 3-8 dm. high, strong: leaves flat, 2-4 mm. broad, about the length or 

 longer than the culm: staminate spikes 1-3, the lower small and aggregated at 

 the base of the terminal one: pistillate spikes 1-4, remote, sessile or nearly so, 

 or the lower peduncled, 1-5 cm. long, often loosely flowered at the base: bracts 

 leaf-like, usually much exceeding the culm, the upper sheathless: perigynium 

 ovate or shortly ovoid, abruptly contracted into a very short, erect, divergently 

 and very shortly toothed beak: scales ovate, purple, acute or cuspidate, 

 shorter or longer than the turgid and densely hairy perigynium. C. filifprmis 

 latifolius. Swampy places, in most parts of the northern half of the continent. 



8. Staminate spikes two or more, long-stalked: pistillate spikes two to several, 

 usually all peduncled, long and heavy, loosely flowered, erect or nodding: 

 perigynium large, thick in texture, strongly nerved, hairy or smooth, pro- 

 duced into a long beak which terminates in very conspicuous awl-like erect 

 or spreading teeth. ECHINOSTACHYAE Drejer. Coarse species. 



19. Carex aristata R. Br. Frank. Journ. 751. 1836. Culms very stout, 

 sharply angled: sheaths and under side of the leaves sparsely hairy: staminate 

 spikes 3-8, usually considerably separated; the scale very long, loose and 



