236 CYPERACE^E. Carex. 



-Car. fig. 104; Boott, 111. i. 47, t. 125, 126. C. dlsperma, Dewey, Am. Journ. 

 Sci. viii. 266. C. gracilis, Gray, same, 2 ser. iv. 19. 



In the Sierra Nevada, Butterfly Valley (Lemmon) ; Oregon (Douglas, Scouler) ; from Arctic 

 America to the northern Atlantic States, New Mexico and Utah ; also in northern Europe. 



< -t Spikelets male at bottom. 



25. C. canescens, Linn. Stoloniferous : stem weak, a foot or two high : leaves 

 flat, ^ to 1 j lines broad, acuminate, the upper equalling or exceeding the stem : 

 spike pale or glaucous, 10 lines to 5 inches long, of from 3 to 10 densely flowered 

 ellipsoidal or obovoid spikelets 2 to 7 lines long and 3 lines thick, approximate or 

 remote, or the upper contiguous and the lower remote, the uppermost tapering to the 

 base and the lowest rarely compound, naked or the lowest subtended by a narrow 

 bract that rarely surpasses the stem ; scales membranous, hyaline, white or fulvous 

 with prominent green keels, the male lanceolate, the female ovate or ovate-lanceolate, 

 obtuse or acute or mucronulate : perigynium oval or ovate, abruptly terminated by 

 a very short nearly entire beak, short-stipitate, plano-convex, many-nerved, granular, 

 scabrous on the upper margins, spongy at base, equalling or longer than the scale : 

 nutlet oval or obovate, lenticular, nearly as long as the perigynium. Fl. Dan. 

 t. 285 ; Reichenb. 1. c., t. 206 ; Boott, 111. iv. 154, t. 496. C. curta, Good. ; Eng. 

 Bot. t. 1368; Schk. Car. 53, fig. 13. 



At Clark's Ranch on the Merced, Torrey, n. 548. From Arctic America to the northern Atlan- 

 tic States, and rarely in the Rocky Mountains to Colorado ; also in the Andes from Chili to 

 the Straits of Magellan, and in Europe and northern Asia. 



26. C. Deweyana, Schwein. Cespitose : stem \ to 4 feet long, sharply angled, 

 scabrous, slender, weak and often decumbent : leaves flaccid, 1 or 2 lines broad, 

 shorter than the stem : lowest bract setaceous, seldom exceeding the stem, the upper 

 shorter or scale-like : spikelets 3 to 6, whitish-green becoming yellowish, ellipsoidal, 

 loosely few-flowered, sparingly male at base (rarely some wholly male, or male at 

 top and bottom, or wholly female), the upper contiguous, the lower one or two 

 remote ; scales ovate or lanceolate, acute, mucronate, white-hyaline, somewhat 3- 

 nerved : perigynium very thin, oblong-lanceolate, acuminate to a rough serrate 

 margined bidentate beak, spongy at base, plano-convex, obsoletely nerved, longer 

 than the scale : nutlet closely invested by the perigynium, oblong-ovate, produced 

 at base, lenticular, chestnut-colored, shining : style enlarged at base. Ann. Lye. 

 K York, i. 62 ; Boott, 111. i. 27, t. 70. 



Var. Bolanderi. Stem stouter and leaves broader : spikelets 5 or 6, or rarely 4 

 to 10, and with more numerous (10 to 30) flowers; the scales hispid-awned. - C. 

 Bolanderi, Olney, Proc. Amer. Acad. vii. 393. 



In Napa Valley (Thurber, Bicjelow), on shady hillsides. From Arctic America to the northern 

 Atlantic States, and in the Rocky Mountains to New Mexico ; on the Fraser River (Lynll) and 

 Columbia River, Scouler. The variety is rather frequent in the Sierra Nevada from the Yosemite 

 Valley northward to the Columbia ; also found near Oakland, Bolander, n. 22. 



27. C. Sterilis, Willd. Cespitose : stem 9 to 22 inches high, scabrous : leaves 

 | to 1 line broad, often involute : spikelets 4 to 8, male or rarely female or more 

 commonly androgynous (male at either or both ends), or the upper male and the 

 others female or androgynous (sparingly male at base), the male ellipsoidal and 

 female spherical, mostly contiguous or the lowest subremote, naked or the lowest 

 setaceously bracted and very rarely compound : perigynium at maturity olive-colored 

 or ferruginous, ovate, tapering from a sharply margined cordate base to an acutely 

 bidentate beak, compressed, nerved, serrate on the upper margins, divergent or re- 

 curved, about equalling the ovate acute or cuspidate chestnut-colored hyaline-mar- 

 gined scale : nutlet suborbicular, lenticular, produced at base, yellowish, apiculate 

 with the enlarged base of the style. Schk. Car. fig. 146 ; Boott, 111. i. 55, t. 146. 



Swamps near Mendocino City (Bolander, n. 4739, 6193) ; eastward, from Canada to Texas. 



