384 CYPERACE^E. (SEDGE FAMILY.) 



loosely -flowered at the base), often staminate at the top: perigynium ellipsoid 

 or globose-ovoid, usually gradually tapering into a short beak, broader and com- 

 monly longer than the very acute or rough-awned scale. Var. MINOR, Sart- 

 well, is a form smaller in all its parts, with spikes an inch or so long. 

 Common in swamps from Colorado and Utah northward. Too near the 

 next. 



39. C. ampullacea, Good. Culm rather slender, obtusely angled, not con- 

 spicuously thickened at the base : leaves narrow (f to 2 lines broad), canaliculate, 

 finely and inconspicuously nodulose below, gradually tapering into very long points: 

 spikes fewer, narrower and shorter, more approximate, the lower seldom much ex- 

 serted : perigynium subglobose or globose-elliptic, in typical forms shortly and 

 abruptly beaked, longer than the normally muticous scale. In similar situa- 

 tions with the last, but evidently less common, from Colorado and Utah 

 northward. (Eu.) 



12. Staminate spikes one or more, long: pistillate spikes one to several, brown, 

 purple, or greenish, commonly approximate, sessile or peduncled, oblong or linear, 

 mostly elongated: perigynium not inflated, biconvex, minutely beaked or beak- 

 less, smooth: stigmas 2. MICRORHYNCH.E, Drejer. Paludose and alpine 

 species of upright habit, often growing in tufts or tussocks. Our species 

 fall under the group Acutce, Fries. 



* Perigynium strongly nerved. 



40. C. Jamesii, Torr. Stoloniferous : culm 1 to 2 feet high, rough on 

 the sharp angles, longer than the glaucous, long-pointed leaves : staminate 

 spikes 1 to 4, usually one, large, occasionally bearing a few pistillate flowers 

 at the top : pistillate spikes 2 to 4, erect, the upper sessile or nearly so, the 

 lower more or less peduucled, broadly cylindrical, often inclining to club- 

 shaped ; lower bract often leaf -like : perigynium oval or obovate, ascending, 

 abruptly contracted into a short, toothed (rarely nearly entire) beak, green- 

 ish, about the length of, or a little longer than, the obtuse or abruptly cuspi- 

 date scale, and twice as broad. Colorado, Utah, and southward. Spikes 

 sometimes purplish. 



Var. Nebraskensis, Bailey. Culm stouter, smooth or nearly so, about 

 the length of the leaves : pistillate spikes mostly short, narrowly cylindrical 

 or terete : perigynium squarrose or spreading, usually rusty brown, a little 

 shorter than the gradually pointed, narrower scale. C. Nebraskensis, Dew. 

 With the species and eastward. 



* * Perigynium slightly nerved or nerveless. 



i- Robust species (mostly) : bracts leaf-like, usually exceeding the 

 culm. 



41. C. laciniata, Boott. Culm very sharply angled, 2 to 3 feet high, rough 

 on the angles, at least above : leaves very long : pistillate spikes 3 to 6, dark 

 brown, 1 to 3 inches long, cylindrical and closely flowered, remote, the upper 

 sessile, the lower nodding or spreading on exserted peduncles and loosely 

 flowered at the base : perigijnium oval or elliptic, sometimes nearly circular, con- 

 tracted into a short, toothed beak, usually toothed on the angles above (the teeth 

 deciduous with age), faintly several nerved, about the length of the narrow pale- 



