CYPEKACEAE (sEDGE FAMILY) 95 



nodding peduncles: bracts foliaceous and sheathing: perigynium thin and 

 membranaceous, usually slender or oblong, tapering gradually into a dis- 

 tinct or long minutely toothed straight beak, smooth arid shining (in No. 16 

 usually hairy on the angles and not lucid), mostly light-colored, somewhat 

 inflated; scales thin, white, tawny, or brown. — Hymenochlaenae Drejer. 

 Mostly slender and open-flowered lax-growing species. 



* Terminal spike all staminate: pistillate spikes oblong, club-shaped or cy- 

 lindrical (very sjnall in No. 15): perigynium few^nerved or nerveless, tawny 

 or whitish. — Flexiles Tuckxn. 



15. Carex capillaris L. Sp. PI. 977. 1753. Usually densely caespitose: 

 culms very slender, varying from 3-30 cm. in height, much longer than the 

 numerous very narrow radical leaves: pistillate spikes 1-4, loosely 3-10- 

 flowered, long-exserted and nodding, the lower often very remote: perigynium 

 small, ovate or ovate-oblong, contracted into a nearly entire beak of about 

 half its length, about the length or longer than the white or tawny hyaline 

 scale. — High mountains from Colorado westward and northward. A dehcate 

 species, variable in size and in the length and shape of the pistillate scales. 



16. Carex ablata Bailey, Bot. Gaz. 13: 82. 1888. Stoloniferous: culm slen- 

 der, 3-5 dm. high, much longer than the short and rather broad, many-nerved, 

 lax radical leaves: bracts conspicuously and loosely sheathing, the lower more 

 or less leaf -like, the upper setaceous: pistillate spikes ferruginous, 2-3 cm. 

 long, the lower club-shaped and long-exserted, the upper more or less cylin- 

 drical and often sessile or nearly so and approximate: perigynium lanceolate, 

 sUghtly inflated, flattened, at first wholly or partly green, at length becoming 

 more or less ferruginous, obscurely nerved, hairy on the angles, tapering and 

 2-toothed, longer than the acute scale. C. frigida. — Utah and Wyoming to 

 Oregon. 



17. Carex longirostris Torr. Ann. Lye. N. Y. 1: 71. 1824. Caespitose: culm 

 rather strong, 2-5 dm. high, obtusely angled, rather longer than the flat and 

 soft leaves: pistillate spikes 2-3, greenish-white, short, thick, nearly erect: 

 perigynium large, 2-nerved, green and shining, produced into a slender white- 

 tipped toothed beak of half or more its length: scale white, acute or cuspidate, 

 about the length of the perigynium. — Colorado. 



§ 7. Staminate spikes one or more: pistillate spikes two to several, stout, erect, 

 mostly shortly peduncled, somewhat squarrose or comose in appearance: peri- 

 gynium thick in texture, hairy, more or less spreading, distinctly and stoutly 

 straight-beaked, the teeth short: scales prominent. — Labiocarpae Fries. 

 Stout, mostly tall species, in wet or grassy places. Our species falls imder 

 the group Lanuginosae Carey. 



18. Carex lanuginosa Michx. Fl. Bor. Am. 2: 175. 1803. Stoloniferous: 

 culms 3-8 dm. high, strong: leaves flat, 2-4 mm. broad, about the length or 

 longer than the culm: staminate spikes 1-3, the lower small and aggregated at 

 the base of the terminal one: pistillate spikes 1-4, remote, sessile or nearly so, 

 or the lower peduncled, 1-5 cm. long, often loosely flowered at the base: bracts 

 leaf-like, usually much exceeding the culm, the upper sheathless: perigynium 

 ovate or shortly ovoid, abruptly contracted into a very short, erect, divergently 

 and very shortly toothed beak: scales ovate, purple, acute or cuspidate, 

 shorter or longer than the turgid and densely hairy perigynium. C. filiformis 

 latifoUus. — Swampy places, in most parts of the northern half of the continent. 



§ 8. Staminate spikes t'^o or more, long-stalked: pistillate spikes two to several, 

 usually all peduncled, long and heaVy, loosely flowered, erect or nodding: 

 perigynium large', thick in texture, strongly nerved, hairy or smooth, pro- 

 duced into a long beak uhich terminates in very conspicuous aul-like erect 

 or spreading teeth. — Echinostachyae Drejer. Coarse species. 



19. Carex aristata R. Br. Frank. Journ. 751. 1838. Culms very stout, 

 sharply angled: sheaths and under side of the leaves sparsely hairy: staminate 

 spikes 3-8, usually considerably separated; the scale very long, loose and 



