198 NEW TOBK STATE MUSEUM 



125. Carex extensa Good. 



Stems l°-2° high, slender but strict, smooth ; leaves shorter 

 than the culm or sometimes surpassing it, involute, smooth ; 

 staminate spike clavate, 8"-10" long, subsessile ; pistillate spikes 

 densely flowered, ovoid or short cylindrical, 4''-9" long, 2^"-3" 

 wide ; the upper ones approximate, sessile, the lowest remote on 

 a short partly included stalk ; bracts like the leaves or the upper- 

 most often setaceous, the lowest sheathing, surpassing the culm; 

 perigynia ovate, prominently nerved, ascending or widely diver- 

 gent, gradually tapering into a short bifid beak, longer than the 

 ovate acute or obtuse macronate deep-brown scale; acheniam 

 elliptical, substipitate. 



Introduced and local. Coney Island and Long Island. 



Distinguished from the last by its stiff involute leaves, less 

 approximate spikes and larger, firmer perigynia. 



Spikes 1-4, the upper half or more of the terminal one fertUe, 

 sterile below, the others fertile, densel}'' flowered ; perigynia long- 

 beaked, squarrose at maturity. 



126. Carex squarrosa L. 



Stems l^°-3° high, stiff and erect, acutely angled, smooth; 

 leaves surpassing the culm, \V-^' wide, lax and spreading, 

 smooth, or rough above the middle ; spikes 1-4, ovoid or cylin- 

 drical, densely flowered, 6"-12" long, 4"-6'' wide, usually approxi- 

 mate, short-ped uncled, or the lowest on a stiff stalk ^-V 

 long, all erect, the terminal one pistillate above, stami- 

 nate below ; bracts leafy, longer than the culm, or the upper- 

 most sometimes not exceeding its spike ; perigynia turgid, 

 obovoid, lightly few nerv^ed, thin and papery, abruptly con- 

 tracted into a long slender bifid beak as long as the body, 

 the teeth short and thin, horizontally spreading at matur.ty; 

 scale lanceolate, mostly concealed by the crowded perigynia ; 

 achenium elliptical. 



Moist meadows and swales. Common. June, July. 



This is a very distinct and peculiar species not closely related 

 to any other in our limits. 



Forma robusta Peck. Stouter, leaves firmer, mostly erect ; 

 spikes 8'-12" long, 6"-7" wide, 2' apart, the lowest on a slender 

 drooping pedundcle 2' long. 



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