47 



long), the two lowest usually on slender peduncles an inch or two 

 long, the others sessile or nearly so ; lowest bract leaf-like and 

 equalling or exceeding; the culm; perigynium compressed-trigo- 

 nous, ovate or round-ovate in outline, pale and more or less dis- 

 colored or even covered with purple dots (or rarely almost yel- 

 low), produced into a very short and entire beak, mostly shorter 

 than the obtuse or muticous purple scale; stigmas two or three. 

 Mountains of Oregon and Washington to Montana. 



1/ Van NIGELLA. 



C. nigella, Boott, Hook. H. Bor.-Am. ii. 225 (1840), v. s. 



Hb. Boott; 111. 194(1867). 

 Perigynium minutely bidentate; scale narrower and sharper. 

 Columbia River, Tolmte; Mt. Hood, Henderson. 



Var. SUBSESSILIS. 



^ Spikes short and thick (from round oblong to an inch long), 



very densely flowered, the staminate sessile, the pistillate aggrega- 

 ted near the top of the culm, sessile, or the lowest very short pe- 

 duncled ; perigynium broader and more abruptly contracted. 



E. Oregon, Cusick 1,178 and 1,180; Gray's Peak, Colorado, Pat- 

 terson. 



, Var. ANGUSTA. 



Taller; leaves very long and narrow, the basal sheaths becom- 

 ing fibrillose ; spikes all sessile, or the lowest peduncled, cylindri- 

 cal ; bracts narrow, or filiform. Kerbyville, Oregon, HoivelL 



Probably a distinct species. 



56. — Carex LAXICULMIS, Schweinitz, Ann. N. Y. Lye. Nat. 



Hist. 1. 70 (1824), V. s. Hb. Schw. 

 C. jrtroctu'va, Dewey, Wood's Bot 1845, 423. 

 Canada to Carolina. Distinguished by its glaucousness. 



Var. Floridana, 



Lower (6 to 10 inches high), the leaves but one-third or one- 

 fourth the width of those in the type ; upper spike contiguous to 

 the staminate spike, and sessile or short peduncled. Florida, 



Chapman, Curtiss. 



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57. — Carex digitalis, Willd., van cofulata. 



C. rctrociirva, var. copidata, Bailey, Herb. Distr. 1886. . 

 Larger than the species, the culms weak and reclining, some- 

 times two feet long ; leaves twice or thrice broader ; spikes 



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