600 CYPERACE^E. (SEDGE FAMILY.) 



eluded stalks, the lowest remote on a long exserted stalk, and (with one or more 

 of the others) often bearing 1 -2 short branches at the base; perigynia crowded, 

 spreading and at length reflexed, strongly few-nerved, tapering from an ovoid con- 

 tracted base into a conspicuously toothed beak, much longer than the lanceolate scale. 

 (C. reversa, Spreng.) Marshy borders of streams, New England to Perm., Wis- 

 consin, and northwestward. Culm nearly smooth (l-2 high) : leaves and 

 bracts 3" -4" wide, much exceeding the thick spikes, which are !'-!' long. 

 Var. HART 1 1 (C. Hartii, Dew.) is a slender state, with fertile spikes distant, the 

 lower long-peduncled. Yates Co., New York, Dr. Hart Wright. 



140. C. gigant&a, Rudge. Sterile spikes 1-5; sometimes with a few 

 fertile flowers ; fertile spikes 3-5, cylindrical, somewhat erect, or spreading on 

 exserted peduncles, distant or the upper contiguous, all or most of them staminate 

 at the apex ; perigynia ascending, at length horizontal, many-nerved, abruptly tapering 

 from a broadly or globular-ovate ventricose base into a long and slender sharply 

 2-toothed beak, much longer than the ovate-lanceolate mostly awn-pointed scale ; 

 achenium broader than high, strongly triquetrous, with concave faces. Swamps, 

 Delaware ( W. M. Canby), Kentucky (Short), and southward. Allied to the 

 preceding and to No. 133. Culm 2 -3 high : perigynia about 6" long. 



141. C. Schweinitzii, Dew. Sterile spikes commonly 2, the lower often 

 pistillate at the base ; fertile spikes 3 -4, cylindrical, somewhat drooping, densely 

 flowered, often staminate at- the apex, and occasionally the lower rather compound 

 aj the base, on smooth nearly included stalks ; perigynia ascending, oblong-ovoid, 

 rather lightly few-nerved, tapering into a smooth short-toothed beak, a little longer 

 than the lanceolate roughly long-awned scale. Wet swamps, New England, New 

 Jersey, W. New York, and northward: not common. Culm 10' -15' high, 

 smooth : bracts and leaves 2" -3" wide, smooth except the margins, much ex- 

 ceeding the culm : fertile spikes (2' -3' long, rather narrow) and the whole plant 

 turning straw-color. Perigynia 2" - 3" long, thin. 



142. C. Utriculata, Boott Sterile spikes 3-4; fertile spikes 2-5, com- 

 monly 3, rather distant, sessile, or the lowest (sometimes loose and attenuated at 

 the base), peduncled, cylindrical (l^'-4' long) thick, and densely very many- 

 flowered; perigynia ovate, either ventricose and abruptly or inclining to elliptical 

 and more gradually contracted into a cylindrical smooth beak, longer than the 

 lanceolate very acute or awn-pointed scale ; culm stout and thick, obtusely angular, 

 spongy at base (2 -3 high); leaves flat (3' -4" broad), pale, nodose-reticu- 

 lated. (C. ampullacea, var. utriculata of former ed.) Swamps, New England 

 to Penn., Michigan, and common northward. Fruit sometimes almost that 

 of C. vesicaria, sometimes that of C. ampullacea, into which it merges north- 

 ward : the rough mostly awn-like points of the scale usually distinguish it from 

 both European species. 



143. C. Vaseyi, Dew. Differs from the last in the slender culm with acute 

 rough angles; fertile spikes (2 or 3) looser and fewer-flowered; perigynia more 

 tapering into the beak, and scales less pointed ; from C. vesicaria, L. of Europe 

 (of which it is the nearest representative) in the more pointed scales and fewer- 

 nerved perigynia tapering gradually into a longer beak; from the next (into 

 which it probably passes) by the larger elongated-ovate perigynia tapering into a 

 slender beak (the roughness of which, indicated by Dr. Boott, is rarely obvious, 



