Carex. CYPERACE^E. 243 



few-flowered, the upper contiguous, the lower remote and the lowest sometimes on a 

 subradical peduncle 2 inches long, rarely compound at base ; scales purple or chest- 

 nut-colored, pale in the middle, broadly oval, the male mostly obtuse, the female 

 obtuse or tipped with a broad rough awn, clasping the base of the perigynium, more 

 or less 3-nerved : perigynium pale, broadly oval, nerved, the reddish orifice entire, 

 shorter or longer than the scale ; a rough whitish racheola occasionally exserted 

 from the orifice : nutlet obovate. 111. iv. 160, t. 525-530. C. subspathacea, 

 Wormsk. Fl. Dan. t. 1530 ; Kunze, Car. 98, t. 24. C. lanceata, Dewey, 1. c. 

 xxix. 249, t. 10, tig. 77. C. Hoppneri, Boott, Hook. Fl. Bor.-Am. ii. 219, t. 220. 



In swamps near Mendocino City, Bolander, n. 4702. From Greenland and Arctic British 

 America to New England, and on the western coast to Northern California ; also in Scandinavia. 

 C. subspatJuicea is described as having evaginate bracts and only 2 or 3 female spikelets. Dr. 

 Boott, however, in 111. Car. t. 530, figures a specimen with a long sheath, and the greater num- 

 ber of the female spikelets in these specimens does not afford sufficient reason for separating them 

 from C. salina, var. minor, with which they agree in other respects, even in the occasional pres- 

 ence of the racheola noticed by Boeckeler. 



48. C. Sitchensis, Prescott. Stem 1 to 4| feet high, stout, sharply angled, 

 scabrous, many-leaved at base ; lower sheaths fibrous-reticulate : leaves 3 or 4 lines 

 broad, rigid, the cauline shorter, the radical longer than the stem : bracts without 

 sheaths, foliaceous, the lower far exceeding the stem ; auricles purple, clasping : 

 spikes dark purple, cylindrical, the male 1 to 4, sessile, 1| to 3 inches long and 2 or 

 3 lines thick, the 3 to 5 female sessile or more or less peduncled, 1 to 4 inches long 

 and 3 to 5 lines thick, the upper rarely all male at top, contiguous or remote, the 

 lower nodding and loosely flowered and rarely compound at base ; peduncles 2 to 12 

 inches long ; scales purple, the male oblong, obtuse, the female ovate or lanceolate, 

 acuminate or awned, rarely obtuse : perigynium purple, somewhat shining at ma- 

 turity, orbicular-obovate, turgidly biconvex, abruptly short-beaked with an entire 

 orifice, stipitate, coriaceous, nerveless, smooth or sparingly toothed on the obtuse 

 upper margins, spreading, narrower (at base) and shorter than the scale : nutlet dark 

 olive-colored, oblong, lenticular, indented on the sides. Bong. Veg. Sitch. 168; 

 Boott, Hook. Fl. Bor.-Am. ii. 220, t. 221, and IU. iv. 195, t. 518, 519. 



In salt marshes, about San Francisco Bay {Bolander), and northward along the coast to Sitka. 

 Dr. Boott notices the occasional presence of a whitish racheola in this species as in the last, and 

 there is often an abortive purple scale at the summit of the perigynium. Boeckeler (in Limuea, 

 xl. 419) refers C. Sitchensis to C. acuta, Linn., as a variety, while Dr. Boott thinks it merely a 

 fuller developed form of C. salina. 



49. C. Jamesii, Torr. Stem a foot or two high, sharply angled : leaves glau- 

 cous, firm, linear-lanceolate, 2 to 4 lines broad, shorter than the stem : bracts foli- 

 aceous, the lowest rarely short-sheathed, equalling or exceeding the stem ; auricles 

 oblong : spikes purple and green, cylindrical or oblong, erect, the upper 1 to 4 male, 

 contiguous, 4 to 1 2 lines long and 1 to 4 thick, the uppermost the largest and rarely 

 more or less female at top, the rest female or the upper sometimes male at top, 10 

 to 20 lines long and 2 or 3 thick, densely flowered, sessile or the lower peduncled, 

 the lowest sometimes attenuate at base and loosely flowered on a subradical pedun- 

 cle ^ to 3 inches long ; scales oblong or lanceolate, acute or cuspidate, purple with 

 pale midnerve : perigynium oval or obovate, abruptly ending in a short bidentate 

 beak with the teeth serrate, biconvex above, compressed below, smooth, strongly 

 nerved, resinously dotted, longer or shorter than the scale : nutlet orbicular. Gyp. 

 398 ; Boott, 111. iv. 175, t. 592. C. Nebrascencis, Dewey, 1. c. 2 ser. xviii. 102. 



In the mountains from Washington Territory and Northern Idaho to New Mexico, Southern 

 Utah, and California ; southward in the Sierra Nevada to Kern River, Rothrock. Also a variety, 

 with a shorter-beaked perigynium, often obscurely nerved, the orifice emarginate or entire, ami 

 the scales obtuse or tipped with a very short mucro ; in the Santa Susanna Mountains (Brewer, 

 n. 218), Ojai Ranch (Peckham), and at Clark's Ranch and the Yosemite Valley, Bolander. 



50. C. laciniata, Boott. Stem stout, sharply angled, scabrous, 2 to 3J feet 

 high : leaves 2 to 4 lines broad : lower sheaths fibrous-reticulate : bracts without 



