104 CYPERACEAE (SEDGE FAMILY) 



61. Carexlagopina Wahl. Kongl. Acad. Handl. II. 24: 145. 1803. Caespitose: 

 culms 1-2 dm. high, erect, rather longer than the leaves: spikes usually 3, 

 often 5 or 6, subglobose or ovoid, reddish-brown, compactly flowered, contiguous 

 or the lowest a little remote, all small, longer than the scale-like bracts: 

 perigynium small, obovate or elliptical, usually colored above, thick in texture, 

 nerved, tapering towards the base, often curved, rather abruptly short- 

 beaked, the beak with a closed fissure on the outer side, longer than the ovate, 

 broad, brown, hyaline-margined acute scale. — A small alpine species dis- 

 tinguished by its heads of few dark-colored spikes, its narrow leaves, and 

 caespitose habit; Colorado and Utah. 



-I- ^- -I- Perigynium ovate, sharp-margined, firm, often thickened at the base, 

 spreading, in open and at maturity stellate spikes. 



62. Carex sterilis Willd. Sp. PI. 4: 208. 1805. Caespitose: culms sharply 

 angled, smooth or rough, slender and erect, 1-5 dm. high, usually longer tnan 

 the narrow, pale leaves: spikes small, about 8-15-flowered, scattered, globular, 

 the upper one conspicuously contracted below with staminate flowers, or 

 rarely all the spikes staminate or all pistillate: perigynium ovate or ovate- 

 lanceolate, gradually narrowed into a sharp-edged, rough, toothed beak, 

 nerved, spreading or reflexed, about the length or longer than the acute scale. 

 C. echinata: (C. stellulata Gooden.) — Colorado to British America. 



* * Spikes tawny or dark, rather large, sometimes crowded: perigynium vrith 

 a more or less thin or winged margin which is mostly incurved at maturity, 

 Tendering the perigynium concave inside. — Ovales Kunth. 



•4- Spikes aggregated into a more or less dense head. 



63. Carex tenuirostris Olney, Am. Nat. 8: 214. 1874. Low, 1-2 dm. high, 

 stiff and erect, the leaves very narrow and long-pointed, somewhat shorter 

 than the culm: head small, ovate, 8-12 mm. long, very light brown: perigynium 

 lanceolate and nearly terete below, slightly concave but marginless above, 

 gradually narrowed into a point, lightly many-nerved, particularly on the 

 back, about the length of the lanceolate and acute hyaline-margined scale. 

 C. Bonpldndii in part. — Western Wyoming and westward. 



64.- Carex illota Bailey, Mem. Torr. Bot. Club 1: 15. 1889. Stoloniferous: 

 culm slender and nearly naked (3 dm. or more high), longer than the grass- 

 like leaves: spikes 3-6, small and chafify, crowded into a small capitate dark 

 brown head which is 12 mm. or less long: bracts scale-like, often setaceously- 

 pointed, sometimes inconspicuous, never longer than the head: perigynium 

 ovate or ovate-lanceolate, somewhat colored, narrowed into a serrate beak 

 about as long as the body, nerved, narrowly winged, about the length of the 

 aoutish scale or a little longer and about as wide. C. Bonplandii angustifolia. — 

 In the mountains; Colorado to Montana and west to Utah. 



65. Carex festiva Dewey, Am. Journ. Sci. 24: 246. 1835. Caespitose: culms 

 usually slender, 2-8 dm. high, longer than the fiat stem-leaves: spikes 6-15, 

 roundish, small, densely aggregated (occasionally somewhat loosely) into a 

 fulvous dark brown or green and brown ovoid head, which is 1-3 cm. m diame- 

 ter: bract usually inconspicuous, sometimes as long as the head, narrow: 

 perigynium varying from broad-ovate at base to long-lanceolate, greenish, 

 conspicuously winged (half its width or more being consumed in the thin 

 margins), narrowed gradually into a rough beak about as long as the body, 

 nerved or almost nerveless, longer and broader than the acute or somewhat 

 obtuse brown scale. (C. ebenea Rydb. Bull. Torr. Bot. Club 28: 266. 1901.) 

 A number of varieties have been proposed, but they are distinguished from the 

 species with difficulty. — ^Frequent throughout the Rocky Mountain region. 



66. Carex multinoda Bailey, Bot. Gaz. 21: 5. 1896. Similar to the preced- 

 ing but much slenderer, with very slender leaves: spikes small and massed into 

 a Uttle tawny or dark head: points of the narrow perigynia generally con- 

 spicuously spreading. — Same range as the preceding. 



67. Carex atbrostachya Olnny, Proe. Am. Acad. 8: 393. 1868. Differs from 



