CYPERACE^;. (SEDGE FAMILY.) 525 



forming .dense tufts. The fertile spikes do not exceed 2" - 3" in length, and are 

 i.Lout 1" broad. 



83. C. pedlliiClll&ta, Muhl. Spikes 3-5, commonly 4, the uppermost 

 si^r'U with 2 -3 fertile flowers at the base, the restfei-tile with a few staminate flowers 

 at the apex, all on long stalks, remote, 1 - 2 of the lowest near the base of the calm ; 

 sheaths with green tips much shorter than the stalks ; perigynia with a long atten- 

 uated base and a minutely notcJied orifice, somewhat downy, especially on the angles, 

 about the length of the broadly obovate abruptly awned or pointed dark-purple 

 scale. Dry woods and rocky hill-sides, New England to Penu., Wisconsin, 

 and northward Culms 4' -10' high, prostrate at maturity, growing in tufta 

 partly concealed by the very long and narrow grassy leaves. 



6. Perigynia with a straight or slightly bent more or less abrupt beak, hairy, not in- 

 flated, terminating in a membranaceous notched or 2-toothed orifice : bracts 

 short, either green aui slightly sheathing or auriculate at the base, or small 

 and resembling the scales : scales dark brown or purple with white margins, 

 fading lighter or sometimes turning nearly white : staminate spike solitary: 

 the fertile 2 - 3, nearly sessile (except in No. 84), erect. (Culms mostly low 

 and slender : leaves aU radical, long and narrow.) MOXTAXJJ. 



84. C. umbellata, Schk. Culms very short ; staminate spike sometimes 

 with a few pistillate flowers ; fertile spikes 4-5, ovoid, few-flowered ; the upper- 

 most close to the sterile spike and sessile, the rest on stalks arising from the base of the 

 tftem and of about ecual height, appearing somewhat like a small coiymb, nearly 

 concealed by the long grassy leaves ; perigynia ovoid, 3-angled, with a rather 

 long abrupt beak, about the length of the ovate pointed scale. Rocky hill- 

 sides, New England to 111., and northward. Growing in dense grassy tufts, 

 with culms l'-3', rarely 6' high. 



85. C. Novre-Angliae, Schw. Sterile spike on a short stalk ; the fertile 

 2-3, ovoid, nearly sessile, 3 - 5-Jlowered, more or less distinct, the lowest with a 

 green and bristle-shaped or colored and scale-like awned bract ; perigynia obovoid, 

 3-angled, attenuated at the base into a short stalk, minutely hairy (principally 

 above), indistinctly nerved, with a somewhat elongated 2-toothed beak deeply cleft on 

 the inner side, a little longer than the ovate pointed scale. (C. collecta, Dew. 

 C. varia, var. minor, Boott (including var. Emmonsii). C. lucorum, Kunze, not 

 of Willd. ?) Var. EMMOXSII has the fertile spikes 5 - 10-flowercd, aggregated, 

 the uppermost close to the base of the staminate ; or varying occasionally with 

 the lowest on a long stalk near the base of the culm, concealed by the long gras- 

 sy leaves. (C. alpestris, Schw. $' Torr., not of AUioni. C. Davisii, Dew., not ot 

 Schw.fr Torr. C. Emmonsii, Deic.) Woody hills and mountains, N. New 

 England to Ohio, and northward; also southward along the Alleghanies. 

 Grows in grassy tufts, with numerous verv slender, often prostrate culms, vary- 

 ing from 4' -15' in length. The var. is the prevailing form, but intermediate 

 ones continually occur, differing in respect to the contiguity and size of the fer- 

 tile spikes, and in the proximity of the uppermost to the base of the sterile one. 

 The form of the perigynium varies with age ; the mature ones in Kunze's figure 

 of C. lucorum have the elongated beak of C. nigro-marginata, Schw. (possibly 

 the C. lucorum of Willd.), whilst the plant delineated is clearly C. Novse-Anglice. 



