CrPERACEJE. (SEDGE FAMILY.) 873 



Beak short, stout, tmiicate . 18 



Beak longer than body ... 29 



Spikes cylindrical. 



PerigjTiiura beakless 19 



Perigyniura nearly beakless, the point bent 21 



Perigynium conspicuiously beaked, 



Lanceolate, flattened .... 28 



Greenish, very tnryid below, large 83 



Brown and hard, with spreading setaceous te«th .... 32 var. 

 Thin, inflated, straw-colored or purple. 



More or less ascending . 36, 37 



Conspicuously squarrose 38, 39 



Subgenus I. Eucarex. Staminate flowers forming one or more ter- 

 minal linear or club-sliaped spikes which are often pistillate at base or apex, 

 or occasionally having a few pistillate flowers intermixed. Pistillate flowers 

 usually in distinct and normally simple mostly pcdnncled sj)ikes which are 

 seldom aggregated into heads. Cross-section of the perigynium circular or 

 obtusely angular in outline. Stylo commonly 3-parted and the achenium 

 trigonous or triquetrous. — Passing into the following subgenus through the 

 members of the last section. 



§ 1. Spike single (in our species), androgj/noiis, male at the top, the rhachis con- 

 spicuoushj jointed: perigi/nium lanceolate or spindle-shaped, longer than the 

 scale, deflexed at maturitij : stigmas very rarely two. — Deflexocarp^. 

 Low and mostly slender species. 



♦ Perigynium green, linear-lanceolate, sessile, several times longer than the scale. — 



Pauciflor^, Tuckm. 



1. C. mieroglochin, Wahl. Culms rigid from a creeping base, 2 to 

 8 inches high : leaves few and narrow, shorter than the culm : staminate 

 flowers very few : perigynia 4 to 6, the orifice closed by a conspicuous pro- 

 jecting racheola which springs from the inside beneath the achenium : scales 

 deciduous. — Uncinia mieroglochin, Ledeb. Colorado, probably from high 

 mountains {Hall S^ Harbour, 607) ; also in subarctic America. (Eu.) 



C. PAUCiFLORA, Lightf., distinguished by the orifice of the perigynium 

 being closed with the stiff persistent style, occurs in British America and 

 may be expected northward. 



* * Perigynium broum, spindle-shaped or narrowly ovate, stipitate, little longer 



than the scale. — Public ares, Tuckm. 



2. C. Pyrenaica, Wahl. Culm 2 to 8 inches high, slender: spike dense, 

 oblong, brown or purple, the fertile flowers erect until full maturity : leaves 

 narrow, mostly involute- filiform, sliorter than the culms: staminate flowers few, 

 occupying -J or less the length of the spike: perigynium few-nerved or nerveless, 

 usually shining at maturity. — High mountains of Colorado, Utah, and north- 

 ward. (Eu.) 



3. C. nigricans, C. A. Meyer. Stouter: leaves nearly flat, a line or more 

 broad : staminate flowers usually conspicuous and occupying ahout half the spike: 

 perigynium somewhat ventricose, dull : otherwise as in the last, with which it 

 grows. — Evidently the more common species. (Asia.) 



