284 CYPERACEAE. 



i. Elyna Bellardi (All.) C. Koch. Arctic Elyna. (Fig. 668.) 



Care.r Bellardi All. Fl. Ped. 2: 264. pi. 92. f. 2. 1785. 

 Kobresia scirpina Willd. Sp. PI. 4: 205. 1805. 

 Elyna spicata Schrad. Fl. Germ, i: 155. 1806. 

 Elyna Bellardi C. Koch, Linnaea, 21: 616. 1848. 



Densely tufted, culms very slender, 4 / -i8 / tall, 

 longer than the very narrow leaves. Old sheaths 

 fibrillosc, brown; margins of the leaves more or 

 less revolute; spike subtended by a short bract, or 

 bractless, densely flowered or sometimes inter- 

 rupted below, %"-\$" long, i*&"-2" in diam- 

 eter; achenes rather less than i" long, }/ 2 " thick, 

 appressed. 



In arctic America from Greenland to Bering Sea, 

 south in the Rocky Mountains to Colorado. Also in 

 Europe and Asia. Summer. 



18. KOBRESIA Willd. Sp. PI. 4: 205. 1805. 



Slender arctic and mountain sedges, with erect culms leafy below, and few-several- 

 flowered spikelets clustered in a terminal spike. Scales of the spikelets i-flowered, the 

 lower usually pistillate, and the upper staminate. Stamens 3. Perianth-bristles or peri- 

 gynium wanting. Ovary oblong, narrowed into a short style; stigmas 3, linear. Achene 

 obtusely 3-angled, sessile. [Name in honor of Von Kobres, a naturalist of Augsburg.] 



Three or four species, the following widely distributed in arctic and mountainous regions, 

 the others Himalayan. 



i. Kobresia bipartita (All.) Britton. 

 Arctic Kobresia. (Fig. 669.) 



Carex bipartita All. Fl. Ped. 2: 265. pi. 89. f. 5. 1785. 

 Kobresia caricina Willd. Sp. PI. 4: 206. 1^05. 



Kobresia bipariita Britton, Mem. Torr. Club, 5: 101. 

 1894. 



Culms solitary or tufted, smooth or very nearly 

 so, 4 / -i2 / tall. Leaves about y 2 " wide, infolded at 

 least in drying, usually shorter than the culm, the 

 old sheaths becoming fibrillose; spike i' long or 

 less, composed of several or numerous linear ap- 

 pressed or ascending spikelets; scales somewhat 

 serrulate on the keel, rather more than >" long; 

 mature achenes slightly longer than the scales. 



Greenland to the Canadian Rocky Mountains. Also 

 in Europe and Asia. Summer. 



19. UNCINIA Pers. Syn. 2: 534. 1807. 



Culms erect, leafy, or the leaves all basal. Spike simple, erect, terminal, the scales im- 

 bricated, i-flowered, the lower pistillate, the upper staminate. Scales ovate or oblong, con- 

 cave, not keeled, obtuse or the lower acute. Stamens 3, rarely i or 2. Pistil enclosed in a 

 utricle (perigynium), borne at the base of a slender axis, which is usually exserted beyond 

 the orifice of the perigynium, at least in fruit, and sometimes hooked. Stigmas mostly 3. 

 Achene 3-angled. [Latin, referring to the hooked projecting axis of the southern species.] 



About 30 species, all but the following natives of the southern hemisphere. Our species dif- 

 om Carex only in the elongation of the subulate axis within the perigvnium; those of the 

 southern hemisphere are very different in habit 



