168 NEW TOEK STATE MUSEUM 



The terminal spike bears perigynia at its apex ; the perigynia 

 are smooth and the scale is acute or barely mucronate, not awned. 

 In these respects it approaches C. gracillima more closely than it 

 does C. pubescens. This has been somewhat doubtfully con- 

 sidered by Professor Bailey to be a hybrid between C. gracil- 

 lima X aestivalis, but it is only necessary to suppose that in this 

 case the prepotency lies with C gracillima and in the other with 

 C. pubescens to make both forms descendants of the same parent 

 plants, as they probably are. 



57. Carex formosa Dew. 



Stems 15-30' high, slender, erect, smooth; leaves short, the 

 uppermost sometimes equaling the culm, l^"-2-|" wide, slightly 

 hispidly pubescent beneath, yellowish green ; spikes 2-5, the ter- 

 minal with 6-8 perigynia at the apex, staminate below, long 

 peduncled, the others subdistant or approximate, secund, all on 

 filiform recurved or drooping peduncles, subdensely flowered, 

 with 2 or 3 empty scales at the base ; bracts leafy or filiform, 

 about equaling the culm ; perigynia ovate, turgid, nerved, thin, 

 tapering to a short entire or minutely-notched beak ; scale ovate, 

 obtuse, cuspidate, white or brownish, one-half as long as the 

 perigynium. 



The spikes are i'-l' long, and about 2" wide ; the perigynium 

 3" long and 1" wide, giving to the former a thick and heavy 

 appearance, by which the species may be distinguished. 



Woods and wet places. Rare. June, Columbia, Oneida and 

 Yates counties. 



68. Carex Da.visii ISchw. & Torr. 

 Stems l^°-8° high, erect, rather stout, smooth or with a soft 

 pubescence; leaves mostly equaling or exceeding the culm, 

 l^"-i" wide or more, clothed with a soft pubescence beneath, 

 hispid on the veins and margins; spikes 3-5, the terminal, pistil- 

 late above, erect, the 2 upper fertile ones contiguous at the base 

 of the staminate portion, subsessile or short-peduncled, the low- 

 est distant or remote on a short, erect, or rarely long, spreading 

 stalk i'-H' long, densely flowered, 3"-4" wide, light green, erect 

 or somewhat spreading ; bracts leaf -like, equaling or exceeding 

 the culm; perigynia ovate, conspicuously nerved, turgid, taper- 

 ing into a short bifid beak, about the length of the ovate obtuse 

 awned scale. 



