CYPERACE^E. (SEDGE FAMILY.) 589 



H- 4. Cryptocarpce. Large, with nodding or drooping large spikes, their dark scales very 



long and conspicuous ; stigmas 2. Sp. 40, 41. 

 4- 5. Pendulince. Distinguished from H- 4 by the smaller size, smaller spikes, sheathles* 



bracts, and whitish, more or less granulated, nearly pointless verigynium ; stigmas 3. 



Sp.42-45. 



* 4. Hymenochlaenae. Perigynium mostly light green or whitish, usually thin and mem- 



branous, often somewhat inflated or loosely investing the achene, commonly smooth 

 and shining (hairy in n. 46, sometimes in n. 47), slender or oblong, attenuate to a dis- 

 tinct or long minutely toothed straight beak (or beakless or nearly so in H- 1 and n. 55); 

 pistillate spikes several or many, mostly loosely flowered and on filiform nodding or. 

 widely spreading peduncles ; bracts leaf-like ; terminal spike staminate or androgynous ; 

 stigmas 3. Mostly rather tall and slender upland species. 



*- 1. Virescentes. Terminal spike pistillate at top ; pistillate spikes oblong or cylindrical, 

 dense, erect ; perigyniuin ovate or obovate, nearly or quite beakless, often hairy. Sp. 

 46, 47. 



- 2. Sylvaticce. Terminal spike all staminate ; pistillate spikes mostly loug-exserted, slen- 

 der ; perigynium few-nerved, contracted into a cylindrical beak which is longer than the 

 body. Sp. 48. 



- 3. Flexiles. Terminal spike all staminate ; pistillate spikes rather thick (very small in 

 n. 50), more or less drooping ; perigyniuin beaked, few-nerved or nerveless, tawny or 

 whitish. Sp. 49, 50. 



- 4. Debiles. Terminal spike all staminate (occasionally pistillate above in n. 53) ; pistil- 

 late spikes very narrow and slender, long-exserted and nodding, mostly very loosely 

 flowered ; perigynium rather small, not turgid, prominently beaked. Sp. 51-53. 



i- 5. GracillimcB. Terminal spike pistillate at top ; pistillate spikes habitually thicker than 

 in .,_ 4 ; perigynium ovate-oblong, more or less turgid ; the beak short or none. Sp. 

 54 - 57. 



- 6. Grisece. Terminal spike staminate ; perigynium more or less turgid or plump, often 

 glaucous, scarcely beaked, finely striate ; spikes erect. Sp. 58, 59. 



* 5. Spirostachyte. Perigyniuin smooth or minutely granulated or rarely somewhat ser- 



rate on the margins, prominently nerved, mostly yellowish, squarrose, mostly beaked 

 (entirely beakless in n. 63), the orifice entire ; staminate spike mostly single ; pistillate 

 spikes 2-5, short (usually 1' long or less), yellow or fuscous, compactly flowered ; stig- 

 mas 3. Medium-sized species, growing in meadows and grassy swales. 



+- 1. Granulares. Spikes scattered, cylindrical, the lowest long-stalked ; bracts erect, long 

 and leafy ; sheaths short or nearly obsolete. Sp. 60, 61. 



- 2. Extensa. Spikes mostly approximate or aggregated at the top of the culm (becoming 

 remote in C. extensa), the lowest 1 or 2 subtended by a long and leafy mostly abruptly 

 spreading and nearly or entirely sheathless bract. Terminal spike sometimes andro- 

 gynous. Sp. 62. 



- 3. Pallescentes. Spikes globular or short-oblong, obtuse, sessile or short-peduncled, ap- 

 proximate at the top of the culm ; bracts short, leaf-like, sheathless ; perigynium entire 

 at the orifice, the beak none or very sho'rt and stout. Sp. 63, 64. 



* 6. Dactylostachyse. Perigynium mostly short and triangular, mostly with a short and 



straight or curved beak, green or greenish, scarcely inflated ; scales of the pistillate 

 spikes mostly whitish (sometimes dark-colored in the Digitatce), often small ; staminate 

 spike mostly one ; pistillate spikes short (seldom exceeding 1'), commonly rather loosely 

 flowered and slender (spike single and plant dioecious in n. 83) ; bracts sheathing, the 

 sheaths often conspicuous and colored. Low and lax or slender species inhabiting 

 meadows and copses. 



- 1. Oligoca/rpcB. Slender and narrow-leaved, with leafy bracts and inconspicuous green 

 sheaths ; perigynium rounded on the angles, finely many-striate, often somewhat punc- 

 tnlate as in n. 58, to which the group forms a transition. Sp. 65-67. 



- 2. Laxiflorce. Slender and more or less broad-leaved, with mostly leafy bracts, green of 

 purple sheaths, and loosely flowered spikes : perigynium mostly conspicuously three* 

 angled, with a more or less curved beak. Sp. 68-74t 



