92 CYPERACEAE (SEDGE FAMILY) 



nium, usually hearing a beak half its length: pistillate scales ar.ute (except 

 in Nos. 3 and 4): stigmas rarely 2.— Sphaeridiophorae Drejer. Low 

 species in dry places, the leaves all radical. No. 4 is dioecious. 



* Spike one, androgynous. — Filipoliab Tuckm. 



3. Carex filifolia Nutt. Gen. 2: 204. 1818. Caespitose: culms slender, ob- 

 tusely angled and smooth, 1-3 dm. high, when full grown longer than the 

 filiform rigid leaves, their bases surrounded by dry brown leafless sheaths 

 which at length break up into fibers : spike 1-3 cm. long, ferruginous or whitish, 

 bractless, the staminate portion sometimes nearly free from the pistillate por- 

 tion: perigynium broadly triangular-obovoid, thin, few-nerved or nerveless, 

 scabrous or slightly hairy above, abruptly contracted into a short, stout, white- 

 hyaline entire beak, about the length or shorter than the very broad hyaline- 

 margined clasping scale: perigynium containing a short serrate racheola. (C. 

 oreocharis Holm. Am. Jour. Sci. IV. 9: 358. 1900.) — Dry plains and moun- 

 tains from Colorado westward and northward. 



3a. Carex filifolia miser Bailey, Proc. Am. Acad. 22: 122. 1886. Low, 

 usually 5-10 cm. high, the leaves very rigid: pistillate portion of the spike not 

 conspicuous: pistillate scales much narrower than in the species, the margins 

 scarcely hyaline: perigynium much smaller and flatter, entirely concealed 

 under the scale, oblong-obovate, smooth., (C. elynoides Holm. 1. c. 356.)— 

 Alpine in Colorado and westward to the Sierras. 



4. Carex scirpoidea Michx. Fl. Bor. Am. 2: 171. 1803. Creeping: culms in 

 flower short, elongating, 1—4 dm. high in fruit and exceeding the broad and 

 flat leaves, more or less scabrous on the angles at least above, the basal sheaths 

 not splitting into fibers: spike ferruginous, linear or club-shaped, 1-5 cm. 

 long, occasionally with 1 or 2 accessory spikes at base: perigynium ovate or 

 obovate, hairy, lightly nerved, about the length (or a little longer) of the 

 cilia te more or less obtuse scale : scales on the staminate plant hyaline-margined, 

 not ciliate. — High mountains; Colorado and Utah, northward and westward. 



* * Spikes two to several, the lower occasionally peduncled or sometimes rad- 

 ical: perigynium contracted below, usually bearing two prominent ribs, the 

 very short or often prolonged beak sligfitly 2-toothed. — Montanae Fries (in 

 part). 



-1- Culms upright, as long or longer than the leaves: spikes closely flowered, 

 mostly aggregated at the top of the culm. 



5. Carex penasylvanica Lam. Encycl. 3: 388. 1789. Extensively creeping; 

 culms few, slender, 1-3 dm. hi';h: staminate spike conspicuous, 1-2 cm. long, 

 often club-shaped, sessile or shortly peduncled, sometimes pistillate at the 

 top: pistillate spikes 1-4, the lower one very rarely 2-3 cm. remote, the upper 

 ones bractless, the lower sometimes subtended by a short and subulate brown 

 bract: perigynium globose or roundish-obovoid, abruptly contracted into a 

 short or often long beak, usually shorter than the acute or cuspidate brown oi 

 rarely whitish scale. — Dry, sandy plains; a variable species, widely distrib- 

 uted. 



6. Carex deflexa Hornem, Plantel. Ed. 3. 1: 938. 1821. This species does 

 not occur in our range, but the following varieties are rather common. 



6a. Carex deflexa Farwellii Brit. Fl. 1: 334. 1896. Rtther stiff, 1-3 dm, 

 high, in dense tufts: most of the culms somewhat exceeding the leaves: stam- 

 inate spike prominent and erect, 6-10 mm. long, sessile or very short- 

 peduncled: pistillate spikes two or three, all scattered, the uppermost at or 

 near the base of the staminate spike, the lowest usually very prominently 

 peduncled and subtended by a conspicuous bract which surpasses the culm, 

 all rather compactly 3-8-flowered, green, or brown and green: radical spikes 

 usually abundant: perigynium oval, obtusely 3-angled, pubescent, the beak 

 as long as the body: scales large and sharp, equaling or exceeding the peri- 

 gynium. C. deflexa media Bailey. — Mountains; Montana and Colorado to 

 Oregon. 



