234 CYPERACE^E. Carex. 



acutish: perigynium spreading, ovate or lanceolate, attenuate to a dark-colored 

 obliquely cut entire beak fissured on the outer side and not winged, smooth on the 

 margins, nerved, equalling or longer than the scale : nutlet chestnut-colored, oblong, 

 produced at base, lenticular. 111. iii. 115. C. Bonplandii, var. minor, Olney, Bot. 

 King Exp. 365. 



In the Sierra Nevada, from the Yoseraite Valley and Mono Trail (Bolandcr, n. 4903, 6207) to 

 Donner Pass (Torrey, n. 550) ; also in the mountains of Colorado and Utah. The original species 

 is found in the Andes of tropical South America. In Bolander's specimens from the Yosemite 

 Valley the spikelets are mostly female and have rarely a few male flowers at top. Kunth places 

 the species in an androgynous section with spikelets male at top, but describes it as furnished 

 "spicis mere femineis." 



19. C. festiva, Dewey. Cespitose : stern | to 2 feet high, sharply angled: 

 leaves 3 to 5, the upper the longest, commonly shorter than the stem, 2 or 2| lines 

 broad : spike dark-ferruginous, 6 to 1 2 lines long and 3 to 1 2 thick, of from 6 to 1 2 

 or more nearly equal roundish or ovoid spikelets, contiguous in an oblong or crowded 

 in a spherical or ovoid head, naked or subtended by a scale-like or foliaceous bract, 

 that sometimes exceeds the stem : perigynium membranous, spreading or divergent, 

 ovate, lanceolate, or narrowly elliptical, attenuate to a longer or shorter obliquely 

 cut entire (at length bidentate) fuscous beak with a white orifice and marked by a 

 long fissure on the outer side, plano-convex, narrowly winged, serrate above on the 

 sharp margins, slenderly nerved, longer than the scale : nutlet oval or nearly orbicu- 

 lar, lenticular, chestnut-colored, shining. Am. Journ. Sci. xxix. 246; Fl. Dan. 

 t. 2367 ; Anders. Cyp. 63, t. 4, fig. 27. 



Var. Haydeniana. Stem 4 to 8 inches high : bracts scale-like and cuspidate : 

 spike dense, ovate or nearly round, of about 6 spikelets : perigynium tawny, ovate, 

 tapering to a long obliquely cut beak : nutlet elliptical. C. Haydeniana, Olney, 

 Bot. King Exp. 366. 



Var. gracilis, Olney. Stem very slender, nodding at top, 2 to 2J feet high : 

 spike oblong, 1 to 11 inches long, of from 3 to 6 roundish contiguous or approxi- 

 mate ferruginous spikelets : perigynium of the normal form : nutlet orbicular or ob- 

 ovate, larger in proportion to the perigynium. 



In the Coast Ranges, from Monterey (in woods among grass, the stems sometimes rooting, 

 Brewer, n. 697) to Ukiah (Bolander), and in the Sierra Nevada, at 4,000 to 9,000 feet altitude ; 

 ranging from Greenland and Arctic America southward in the mountains to New Mexico and 

 California, and in the Andes of South America to the Straits of Magellan. The variety gracilis 

 is peculiar to California and is found both in the Coast Ranges and in the Sierra Nevada. It is 

 taller, more slender and more loosely flowered than the species proper, but is connected with it by 

 intermediate forms. It is like Coulter's n. 1622, which Dr. Boott in 111. Car. 154 referred to 

 C. propinqua, Nees & Meyer. But Kunth describes C. propinqua as having a nerveless peri- 

 gynium, spongy at base, while the perigynium of the Californian plant is nerved, wholly mem- 

 branous, and sharply margined at base. As these differences appear to distinguish it from C. 

 propinqua, the name suggested by the late Mr. Olney is here adopted. The var. Haydeniana, 

 has been found on Mount Dana (Bolander, n. 5074), and in the Uinta Mountains, Utah, Hayden. 

 C. festiva in its looser flowered forms is probably not distinct from C. leporina. 



20. C. subfusca. Cespitose : stem 1 or 2 feet high, slender, rather obtusely 

 angled, smooth : leaves flat, 1 to 1 lines broad, shorter than the stem : bracts scale- 

 like, the lowest subulate-pointed, rarely exceeding its spikelet : spike oblong, 6 to 9 

 lines long, of from 4 to 6 crowded round or oblong spikelets, 3 lines long, the lowest 

 often distinct ; scales tawny with pale midnerve and hyaline margins, acute or cus- 

 pidate, the midnerve scabrous at top : perigynium pale, 1| lines long, ovate or round, 

 acuminate-rostrate, the obliquely cut beak entire with a long fissure on the outer 

 side extending as far as the nutlet, narrowly winged to the base, very convex on the 

 outer side, strongly nerved, spreading, a little longer than the scale. 



Lake Tahoe (Kellogy), and near Virginia City, Nevada, Bloomer. 



21. C. athrostachya, Olney. Cespitose: stem acutely triangular, leafy, 8 to 

 24 inches high : leaves narrow, shorter than the stem : bracts with an expanded 



