180 NE"S7 TOKK STATE MDSEUM 



The pistillate spikes, when fresh, are pale green and more 

 densely flowered than in any of the other members of this group. 

 This is C. miliacea Muhl. of the older botanies. 



95. Carex arctata Boott. 



Stems 1°-'^° high, slender, erect-spreading or diffuse, smooth, 

 somewhat stoloniferous, basal bracts dark purple ; leaves mostly 

 shorter than the culm, radical leaves numerous, ^^"-^" wide, 

 smooth, rough-margined ; staminate spike linear, 6"-'j" long, its 

 filiform stalk 5"-8" in length, often inconspicuous ; pistillate 

 spikes 3-5, ^'-'■^' long, loosely flowered "on a flexuous rachis, all 

 on drooping peduncles ^-3' long, scattered, or the upper 2 

 approximate, the highest usually extending above the staminate 

 spike, the lowest remote ; bracts leafy, sheathing, or the upper 

 mostly filiform equaling or extending above the culm ; perigynia 

 ovate, stipitate, nerved, obtusely angled, tapering to a short 

 bidentate beak, longer than the white, acute or cuspidate scale ; 

 achenium obovoid, apiculate. 



Woods and shaded banks. Common. May, June. 



The stipitate perigynia constitute a distinguishing feature of 

 this species. 



C. arctata X castanea Bailey. Pubescent; spikes 1" wide, 

 loosely flowered, green or yellowish, somewhat approximate, 

 erect-spreading or drooping; perigynia ovate, nerved, hairy, with 

 a short bifid beak a little exceeding the acute whitish scale. 

 (C. Knieskernii Deiv.) In the List of the Plants of Northeastern 

 North America this stands as C. arctata X formosa Bailey. 



96. Carex debilis Mx. 



Sterns l°-2|-° high, slender, erect or spreading, smooth, some- 

 times stoloniferous ; leaves shorter or longer than the culm, 

 l^"-2" wide, spreading, rough ; staminate spike linear, pistillate 

 at the summit, short-stalked or subsessile ; pistillate spikes 3-5, 

 linear or narrowly cylindrical, loosely flowered on a flexuous 

 rachis V-2>' long, the 2 or 3 upper approximate on drooping 

 stalks ^'-2' in length, or the highest nearly erect, the lowest 

 remote, pendulous on a penducle 2'-3' long, rarely branched at 

 the base ; bracts leafy, sheathing, exceeding or equaling the culm; 

 perigynia fusiform, nerved, o" long, tapering into a long slender 



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