382 CYPERACE^. Carex. 



Culm 1 - 2 feet high, triquetrous, rough above. Leaves about 2^ lines wide, nearly as long 

 as the culm. Spikelels 4-6 lines long., closeljr appro.\iinated in an imbricated oblong cluster, 

 many-flowered ; each with a very few staminate flowers at the base. Scales a little shorter 

 than the perigynium, liglit brown. Perigynium flatly plano-convex, many-nerved on both 

 sides, tapering to a long very acute point ; the margin distinctly winged, and ciliolate-scabrous. 

 Achenium elliptical-oblong, crowned with the long continuous style. 



Wet meadows and swamps : very common, as is the variety lagopodioides. The latter 

 has been regarded as a distinct species by most of our botanists, but it seems clearly to pass 

 into the ordinary form. 



29. Carex straminea, Schk. Straw-colored Sedge. 



Spikelets 3 — 8, roundish ovoid, approximated ; fruit broadly ovate, much compressed, 

 abruptly acuminate, with a broadly winged ciliolate-scabrous margin, a little longer than the 

 lanceolate scale. — Schk. Car. t.C.f. 34, a?id t. Xxx.f. 174 ; Willd. sp. 4. p. 242 ; Muhl. 

 gram. p. 229 ; Dew. Car. I. c. 7. p. 276, and 11. p. 157 ; Schwein. <^ Torr. Car. I. c. 

 p. 314 ; Beck, hot. p. 434 ; Darlingt. jl. Cest. p. 30 ; Torr. Cyp. p. 395 ; Kunth, enum. 2. 

 p. 398. 



ydj.fcenea : spikelets 4-10, ovoid or ovoid-globose, of a glaucous green color, the lower 

 ones sometimes compound ; perigynium rather broadly winged, erect. — Torr. I. c; Tuckerm. 

 I. c. C. fcenea, Muhl. gram. p. 227 ; Schwein. <^ Torr. 1. c. ; Kunth, I. c. p. 397 ? 



var. moniliformis : spikelets 4-12, straw-colored, ovoid or obovoid, rather remote ; peri- 

 gynia ovate, more or less conspicuously beaked, erect. — Tuckerm. I. c. C. festucacea (in 

 part), Deiv. I. c. ; Schwein. ^ Torr. I. c. C. tenera. Dew. Car. I. c. 8. p. 97 ; Schwein. <^ 

 Torr. Car. I. c. p. 319 ; Beck, hot. p. 435. C. adusta, Boott in Hook. ft. Bor-Am. 2. p. 215 

 (fide Tuckerm.). 



var. festucacea : spikelets 4-12, green, obovoid, more or less clavate, somewhat approxi- 

 mate ; perigynia with a less conspicuous beak, erect. — Tuckerm. I. c. C. festucacea, Schk. 

 Car. t. Www./. 173 ; Dew. I. c. (in part); Schxvein. ^- Torr. I. c. (in part). 



var. mirahilis : spikelets 8-12, green, roundish -ovoid, closely aggregated ; perigvnia 

 ovate, a little smaller and narrower, finally spreading. — Tickerm. I. c. C. mirabilis. Dew. 

 I. c. 3. p. 63. 



var. cristata : spikelets 8-15, finally straw-colored, closely aggregated in a kind of head; 

 perigynia ovate, finally spreading. — Tuckerm. I.e. C. cristata, Schwein. anal. tab. I. c. ; 

 Schwein. <J Torr. I. c. p. 315. t. 25. f. 1 ; Dew. Car. I. c. 10. p. 44. 



A variable species, but the numerous forms pass into each other. Perigynium many- 

 nerved, 2-toolhed at the apex. Achenium obovoid or oblong-obovoid, lenticular, crowned with 

 the continuous style. 



Wet meadows and swamps : var. fosnea in salt-marshes on the seacoast. Fl. May - June. 

 Fr. June - July. 



