234 CVrERACE.E. Carcx. 



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

 obliquely cut entire beak lissured 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. Bonplamlii, var. minor, Olney, IJot. 

 King Exp. 305. 



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

 Donner Pass (I'orni/, n. .'jr)0) ; also in the mountains of Colorado and Utah. The original species 

 is found in the Andes of tropical South Ani(!iiea. In Bolanders specimens from the Yosemite 

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

 the species in an androgynous section with si»ikclet3 male at top, but describes it as furnislied 

 "s{)icis mere feiuineis." 



19. C. festiva, Dewey, Cespitose : stem i to 2 feet high, sharply angled: 

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

 broad : spike dark-ferrugincjus, G to 12 lines long and 3 to 12 thick, of from G to 12 

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

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

 that sometimes exceeds the stem : i)erigynium 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 orilice and markeil by a 

 long iissure on the outer side, phino-convex, narrowly wingeil, serrate above on the 

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

 lar, lenticular, chestnut-colored, shining. — Am. Journ. Sci. xxix. 24G ; Fl. Dan. 

 t. 23G7 ; Anders, (^yp. 63, t. 4, fig. 27. 



Var. Haydeniana. Stem 4 to 8 inches high : l)racts scale-like and cuspidate : 

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

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

 Eot. King Exp. 306. 



Var. gracilis, Olney. Stem very slender, nodding at top, 2 to 1\ feet high : 

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

 mate ferruginous spikelets : perigynium of tlie 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 sonu'times rooting, 

 Brewer, n. 697) to Ukiah {Bolamlcr), and in the Sierra Neva<la, 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 llowered tlian the species jiroper, luit is connected witli it by 

 intermediuto foims. It is like Coulter's n. 16'J"J, which Dr. Hoott in 111, Car. 154 referred to 

 C. propimjua, Nees k Meyer. Hut Ivunth describes (,'. jinijiimjaa as having a nerveless peri- 

 gynium, spongy at base, while the iierigynium of the Californian jdant is nerved, wholly mem- 

 branous, and sharply margined at base. As these dilferenees appear to distinguisli it from C. 

 propinqtui, the name suggested by the late ]Mr. Olney is liere atlopted. The var. Haydcniiina 

 lia^s been found on Mount Dana {Bohuulcr, n. r.074), and in the Uinta Mountains, Utah, Jlu/jden. 

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



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

 angled, smooth : leaves Hat, 1 to 1| lines broad, shorter than the stein : 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 cu.s- 

 pidate, the midnerve scabrous at top : perigynium pale, \l lines long, ovate or round, 

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

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

 outer si<le, strongly nerved, spreading, a little longer than the scale. 



Lake Tahoe (Kcllutjij), and near Virginia City, Nevada, JJloumcr. 



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

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



