Sedge Family 75 



lower with slender pedicels, 7.5-10 cm. long, attenuate at the 

 base, usually truncate at the apex, scales white backed and 

 brown edged, obtuse ; perigynium nerveless, abruptly contracted 

 into a short distinct beak. 



Occasional in marshes about Los Angeles and Santa Barbara. 



6. C. triquetra Boott. Stem 3-5 dm. high, slightly scabrous, 

 leaves pale, 2-5 mm. broad, equaling or shorter than the stem; 

 spikelets 3-5, oblong ; staminate about 18 mm. long, 2 mm. broad, 

 subsessile; pistillate 12-18 mm. long, 3-4 mm. broad, erect, the 

 upper approximate, the lower pedicelled, all with abortive flowers 

 above; scales pale chestnut, ovate, numerous, margins hyaline; 

 perigynium pale, covered with long white hairs, ellipsoidal, 

 sharply 3-angled, acute at each end, with a short bidentate beak, 

 1-4-nerved, longer and broader than the scale; nutlet filling the 

 perigynium. 



Frequent on dry ground in the Santa Monica, San Gabriel and San 

 Bernardino Mountains. 



7. C. multicaulis Bailey. Culms very numerous, 3-6 dm. 

 high, stiff and wiry, terete, smooth or minutely scabrous beneath 

 the flowers ; sheaths leafless or produced into stiff and appressed 

 tips, 2 cm. long or more, or on sterile stems 8-15 cm. long and 

 spreading ; the lower scales leaf-like and prolonged into a slender 

 tip, dilated and hyaline at the base ; pistillate flowers 2-6, the 

 lower often remote; perigynium 6-8 mm. long, strongly 3-angled, 

 many-nerved; beak very short, entire; nutlet punctate, com- 

 pletely filling the perigynium. 



Frequent on dry ridges in the pine belt of all our mountains. 



** Spikelets androgynous, rarely dioecious, usually clustered in rather 

 compact spikes. 



8. C. siccata Dewey. Rootstock creeping, clothed with short 

 lanceolate scales; stems slender, sharply angled, 15-60 cm. high, 

 scabrous above; leaves rather rigid, 1-4 mm. wide, shorter than 

 the stems, scabrous on the margins above ; bracts scale-like, the 

 lowest cuspidate, usually shorter than its spikelet ; spikes oblong, 

 2-5 cm. long, 4-8 mm. broad, ferruginous; spikelets 4-12, alter- 

 nate, simple, ovoid, 4-16 mm. long, 2-8 mm. broad, crowded or 

 distinct below, the terminal pistillate at least at base, the in- 

 termediate staminate or all variously mingled; scales ovate- 

 lanceolate, acute, ferruginous, with broad hyaline margins ; peri- 



