240 CYPERACEyE. Carex. 



the male cylindrical or slightly clavate, obtuse, peduncled, single or with a much 

 smaller one at its base ; the female 3, oblong or clavate, 3 to 9 lines long, the upper- 

 most sessile (sometimes male at base), tlie rest short-peduncled, contiguous or the 

 lowest rarely 4 inches distant; scales purple with pale midnerve and hyaUne mar- 

 gin, obtuse, the male oblong, the female shorter and ovate : perigynium oval, sub- 

 compressed-triangular, obtuse, ending abruptly in a minute purple emarginate beak, 

 pale or tinged with purple, nerveless excepting 2 intramarginal nerves and 2 short 

 ones diverging from the base of the beak, much longer and broader than the scale : 

 nutlet triangular-ellipsoidal. 



In the Sierra Nevada ; Lake Tahoe to Bear Valley, Kellogg. 



§ 4. Spikes unisexual (the male above and mostbj s'mrjle, the rest female), or 

 sparingly androgynous. 



* Stigmas 2. 

 •J— Perigynium beakless or nearly so. 



38. C. aurea, Nutt. Stoloniferous, glaucous : stem 1 to 15 inches high, slen- 

 der : leaves tiat, 1 to IJ lines broad: bracts foliaceous, sheathed, the lower much 

 exceeding the stem : sheaths 1 to 15 lines long : spikes 3 to 6, the uppermost cylin- 

 drical, male, or female at top, 4 to 6 lines long, the rest female, oblong, 3 to 10 

 lines long and 2 broad, loosely flowered, peduncled, the upper contiguous, the lower 

 remote, the lowest often radical and compound ; peduncles from 2 lines to 6 inches 

 long ; scales ferruginous, pale in the middle and with hyaline margins, broadly 

 ovate, obtuse or abruptly cuspidate, 1 -3-nerved : perigynium globose or pear-shaped, 

 turgid, obtuse or abruptly and minutely beaked with entire oritice, coriaceous, spongy 

 at base, orange-colored becoming ferruginous, strongly nerved, longer than and as 

 broad as the scale : nutlet dark brown, orbicular, produced at base, biconvex or 

 rarely triangular : stigmas rarely 3. — Schwein. & Torr. Cyp. 328, t. 25, fig, 2 ; 

 Boott, 111. i. 29, t. 76. 



In the Sierra Nevada, at Soda Springs on the Tuolumne River (Bolander, n. 6220) and Plumas 

 County (Mrs. Austin), and at Mono Lake, Brmvcr, n. 1839. A strongly marked species, peculiar 

 to North America, ranging from subarctic regions to the northern Atlantic States and in the 

 western mountain ranges to Colorado, Southern Utah, Nevada and California. 



^— H— Perigynium short-beaked. 



39. C. Kelloggii. Stem very slender, 12 to 16 inches high, sharply angled and 

 scabrous above : leaves li lines broad, the cauline sliorter, the sterile rather longer 

 than the stem ; bracts without sheaths, the lowest slightly exceeding the stem, the 

 next above its spike ; auricles oblong, ferruginous : spikes 4 or 5, narrowly cylin- 

 drical or clavate, contiguous, sessile or the lowest U inches distant, short-peduncled 

 anil loosely flowered at base, the male (rarely femrde at top or at bottom) f of an 

 inch long, the female 3 to 12 lines long, about a line thick ; scales purple with pale 

 midnerve, the male obovate, the female oblong, obtuse : perigynia pale, ovate, taper- 

 ing to a short beak, the orifice entire, purple, acute at base, short-stipitate, biconvex 

 below, compressed and slightly excurved at top, smooth, obscurely nerved, longer 

 than the scales : nutlet of a dull chestnut, obovate, abruptly tipped with the per- 

 sistent style, half the length of the perigynium. 



In the Sierra Nevada, at Alta and from Lake Tahoe to Bear Valley {Kdlwrj, Lc.mnion) , 

 Wahsatch Mountains, Utah, M. E. Jones. 



40. C. vulgaris, Fries, var. alpina, Boott. Stoloniferous: stem 12 to 18 

 inches high, shari)ly angled, several-leaved at base : leaves 2 lines broad, lance- 

 linear, flat, erect, equalling or shorter than the stem ; auricles purple, the lowest 

 small,' round, separate : spikes 3 to 5, dark-purple, 3 to 9 lines long and 2 thick, 

 short-peduncled, contiguous or the lowest 1 or 2 inches distant, the upper one or 



