CTPEKACE^. (sedge FAMILY.) 573 



A. Spihe solitary, simple ; its scales or bracts small and scarious or colored {never 

 green orfoliaceous). Pstllophora, Loiseleur. 



§ 1. Spike dioecious, or the fertile nierely with a few staminateflovjers at the base. 



1. C. gyndcrates, Wormskiold. Culm and bristle-form radical leaves 

 smooth, or minutely rough at the top ; sterile spike linear ; fertile spike OToid, 

 loosely flowered ; perigynia oblong, short-beaked, with a white membranaceous 

 obtusely 2-toothed apex, narrowed at the base, nerved throughout, smooth, 

 spreading horizontally at maturity, longer than the acute or acatish scale ; stig- 

 mas 2. — Swamps, Wayne and Greuesee Co., New York {Sartivell, &c.), Michi- 

 gan, and northward. (Eu.) 



2. C. SCirpoidea, Michx. Leaves flat; spike narrowly cylindrical ; peri- 

 gynia ovoid, with a minute point, densely hairy, dark purple at maturity, about 

 the length of the pointed ciliate scale ; stigmas 3. ( C. Wormskioldiana, Homem. 

 C. Michaiixii, Schw. ) — Alpine summits of the mountains of Maine and New 

 Hampshire, Willoughby Mountain, Vermont ( Wood), Drummond's Island, 

 Michigan, and northward. (Eu.) 



§ 2. Spilce androgynous, slaminate at the summit. 

 * Stigmas 2 : leaves bristleform. 



3. C. capit^ta, L. Spike small, roundish-ovoid ; perigynia broadly ellip- 

 tical with B notched membranaceous point, compressed, smooth, spreading, 

 longer than the rather obtuse scale. — Alpine summits of the White Mountains, 

 New Hampshire, Robbins, Oakes. (Eu.) 



» » Stigmas 3 : leaves very narrow, shorter than the culm. 



4. C. paucifldra, Lightfoot. Spike few-flowered ; sterile flowers 1 or 2 ; 

 perigynia awl-shaped, reflexed; scales deciduous. (C. leucoglbchin, £ArA.) — 

 Peat-bogs, from New England and W. New York northward. (Eu.) 



5. C. polytriehoides, Muhl. Culm capillary ; spike very small, few- 

 flowered; perigynia erect, alternate, oblong, compressed-triangular, obtuse, 

 slightly nerved, entire at the apex, green, twice the length of the ovate scale. 

 (C. leptMea, Wahl. C. microstachya, Michx.) — Low grounds and bogs: 

 very common. 



* * * Stigmas 3 : leaves very [about 1') broad, longer than the naked culm. 



6. C. Fraseri&na, Sims. Pale or glaucous and glabrous ; leaves without 

 » midrib, many-nerved, smooth, with minutely crisped cartilaginous margins 

 (9'- 18' long), convolute below around the base of the scape-like culm: spike 

 oblong, the fertile part becoming globular ; perigynia ovoid, inflated, mucro- 

 nately tipped with a minute entire point, longer than the scarious oblong obtuse 

 scale ; often enclosing a short appendage at the base of the achenium. — Rich 

 woods, mountains of Pennsylvania? Virginia, and southward : rare, and a most 

 remarkable plant. 



B. Spike solitary, simple, androgynous, staminate at the summit : bracts and 

 scales of the pistillate flowers green, leaf-like, tapering from a broad base, the lowest 

 much longer than the spike, the uppermost equalling the slightly inflated peri- 

 gynia : style jointed at the base: stigmas 3. (Leaves long and grassy, much 

 exceeding the short almost radical culms.) Phyllostachys, Torr. & Gr. 



