(SEDGE FAMILY.) 529 



# Perigynia of a thick or somewhat leathery texture, with 2 short and diverging mem- 

 branaceous teeth : bracts much exceeding the nearly smooth culm : staminate spikes 

 2-3, the uppermost stalked, the lower short and sessile : fertile spikes 1-2, 

 usually 2, erect, remote, sessile or on very short stalks. LANUGIN6S2E. 



102. C. iiliioi mis, L. Fertile, spikes ovoid or oblong, the upper often 

 staminate at the apex ; perigynia ovoid, densely woolly, obscurely nerved, the orifice 

 scarcely prolonged into a beak terminating in 2 slightly hairy teeth ; leaves and 

 bracts narrow and involute; culm very slender. Peat-bogs, New England to 

 Perm., Wisconsin, and northward. (Eu.) 



103. C. lailiigiiiosa, Michx. Fertile spikes oblong or cylindrical ; perigy- 

 nia ovoid, roughly hairy, conspicuously nerved, with a short but distinct beak termi- 

 nating in 2 very hairy sharp teeth ; leaves and bracts flat. (C. pelllta, Muhl.) 

 Swamps and wet meadows, New England to Kentucky, and northward. Ex- 

 tremely like the last, from which it differs in the commonly longer fertile spikes, 

 stouter culm, flat leaves, and especially in the distinct flattish and hairy beak 

 of the perigynium, with longer and sharper teeth. This species has often the 

 fruit in a diseased state, when it becomes more inflated, of an orange color, and 

 has an abortive achenium. 



* = Perigynia thin, downy, or roughly dotted, the beak terminating in a thin and 

 ^carious oblique orifice, either entire or slightly notched: bracts rigidly erect, short- 

 er than the sharply triangular rough culm. ScARi6s^E. 



104. C. vestlta, Willd. Sterile spikes 1-2, the uppermost cylindrical, 

 shortly stalked ; fertile 1-2, approximate, sessile, ovoid or oblong, sometimes 

 staminate at the apex ; perigynia ovoid, downy, with a slightly oblique beak termi- 

 nated by a thin membranaceous notched orifice, a little longer than the ovate pointed 

 scale ; leaves flat, shorter than the stout and rigid culm. Sandy soils, growing 

 in tufts, New England to Penn. and southward ; rather rare. Resembling the 

 two last in external appearance, but readily distinguished by the membranaceous 

 beak of the fruit, which is red at the base and white and transparent at the ori- 

 fice ; and the style is twisted within the perigynium. 



105. C. polymorphic Muhl. (in part.) Sterile spikes 1-4, the upper- 

 most on a long stalk ; the lower short, often with a few fertile flowers at the 

 base ; fertile spike solitary, or rarely 2, remote, oblong-cylindrical, sometimes 

 staminate at the apex, erect, on partly exserted stalks ; perigynia oblong-ovoid, 

 8-10-nerved, very minutely roughened with granular dots, the slightly-bent beak 

 tapering to the entire (reddish) orifice, longer than the ovate scarcely-pointed 

 purple scale. (C. Halseyana, Dew. $* ed. 1. C. striata, Ton: N. Y. FL, not 

 of Michx.} Varies, with the fertile spikes filiform, and the flowers alternate 

 and very distant on the rhachis. Upland meadows, E. Mass, to Penn. and W. 

 New York. Culm rather slender, much taller (12 f - 18') than the rigid leaves. 

 Though a somewhat variable plant, it is readily distinguished from the next, 

 with which it has been confounded, by the characters here given, especially by 

 the entire, membranaceous orifice of the fruit. 



t 11. Perigynia moderately inflated, conspicuously many-nerved, smooth (except in 

 No. 109), with a straight beak terminating in 2 rigid more or /ess spreading teeth : 

 45 



