CYPERACE^E. (SEDGE FAMILY.) 377 



Mountains, 9,000 feet altitude ; and high northward. A delicate and pretty 

 species. The terminal spike is rarely all pistillate. 



* # Sheathless: bracts green or foliaceous: perigynium triquetrous. TRI- 



QUETR^E. 



13. C. pubescens, Muhl. Whole plant soft hairy: culms slender, 1 to 2 

 feet high : leaves flat and soft : pistillate spikes 2 to 4, oblong and rather tightly 

 flowered, i to f inch long, scattered near the top of the culm, the lowest shortly 

 peduncled and subtended by a leafy sheathless bract from I to 3 inches long; 

 perigynium ovate, boldly triquetrous, very hairy, contracted into a slender nearly 

 entire beak over half as long as the body : scale broad below, white and thin on the 

 margins, abruptly contracted into a rough awn ivhich equals or exceeds the peri- 

 gynium. Missouri River below Fort Pierre (Hayden). A species of doubtful 

 affinity, placed here provisionally. 



5. Spike one (in our species), small, the pistillate flowers few : perigynium 

 smooth (sometimes minutely dentate on the angles), firm or horny, mostly shin- 

 ing or glossy, lightly nerved or nerveless, bearing a short beak: scales obtuse 

 with hyaline margins: stigmas 3. (The mature perigynium of No. 15 is 

 unknown ) LAMPROCHL^EN^E, Drejer. Small plants, with creeping root- 

 stocks. Our species all fall under the group Rupestres, Tuckm. 



14. C. rupestris, All. Cespitose and somewhat stoloniferous : culms ob- 

 tusely angled, erect, 1 to 4 inches high, usually a little longer than the long- 

 pointed and mostly channelled leaves ; spike linear or clavate ( to 1 inch long) : 

 perigynium upright, plano-convex, obovate or elliptic, firm in texture, dull, very 

 lightly nerved, abruptly contracted into a short and stout truncate beak, hidden by 

 the amplectant and very broad dark scale C. Drummondiana, Dew. Sierra 

 Blanca, Col. (Hooker fr Gray), and Hall fr Harbour No. 273, according to 

 Wm. Boott; British America and high northward. (Eu.) 



15. C. LyODi, Boott. Rootstocks somewhat creeping or perhaps strictly 

 cespitose : culms short, 1 to 6 (usually 2 or 3) inches high, rigid, mostly shorter 

 than the very rigid, bristle-like glaucous leaves, surrounded at the base by a mass 

 of brown leafless sheaths: spike linear; the staminate flowers 3 to 6 ; the 

 pistillate 7 to 9 : perigynium ovate-lanceolate, pallid, finely few-nerved ; the 

 beak hyaline, minutely and obliquely toothed, about the length or a little 

 shorter than the obtuse and hyaline-margined scale. Twin Lakes (John 

 Wolfe) and Berthoud Pass (Vasey), Colorado; also in British America. 

 Known only from immature specimens. Its stiff and bristle-like leaves and 

 culms are its best known characters. 



16. C. obtusata, Lilj. Very extensively creeping by long and slender brown- 

 ish rootstocks: culms 2 to 7 inches high, longer than the flat and long-pointed 

 leaves : spike at maturity ovate or narrowly ovoid, half-inch or less long, the pistil- 

 lute flowers 4 to 10 : perigynium at first pa'e, brownish at the top, when mature 

 spreading and becoming brown or dark brown-purple, glossy, very horny in texture, 

 turgid-ovate, stipitate, contracted into a stout obliquely cut and conspicuously white- 

 hyaline beak, longer and broader than the membranaceous, acute, and often de 

 ciduous scale : achenium short and broadly triangular. C. spicata, Schk 

 C. affinis, R. Br. C. obesa, All., var. monostachya, Bceckeler. South Park, 

 Colorado, to Montana, westward and northward. (Eu.) 



