600 CYPEEACEiE. (SEDGE FAMILY.) 



eluded stalks, the lowest remote on a long exserted stalk, and (with one or more 

 of the others) often bearing 1-2 short branches at the base ; perigynia crowded, 

 spreading and at length reflexed, strongly few-nerved, tapering from an ovoid con- 

 tracted base into a conspicuously toothed beak, much longer than the lanceolate scale. 

 ( C. reversa, Spreng. ) — Marshy borders of streams, New England to Penn., "Wis- 

 consin, and northwestward. — Culm nearly smooth (lj°-2phigh) : leaves and 

 bracts 3" - 4" wide, much exceeding the thick spikes, which are 1 ' - 1 J' long. — 

 Var. HAktii (C. Hartii, Dew.) is a slender state, with fertile spikes distant, the 

 lower long-peduncled. — Yates Co., New York, Dr. Hart Wright. 



140. C. gig&ntea, Rudge. Sterile spikes 1-5; sometimes with a few 

 fertile flowers ; fertile spikes 3-5, cylindrical, somewhat erect, or spreading on 

 exserted peduncles, distant or the upper contiguous, all or most of them staminate 

 at the apex ; perigynia ascending, at length horizontal, many-nerved, abruptly tapering 

 from a broadly or globular-ovate ventricose base into a long and slender sharply 

 2-toothed beak, much longer than the ovate-lanceolate mostly awn-pointed scale ; 

 achenium broader than high, strongly triquetrous, with concave faces. — Swamps, 

 Delaware (W. M. Canhy), Kentucky (Short), and southward. — Allied to the 

 preceding and to No. 133. Culm 2° -3° high : perigynia about 6" long. 



141. C. Schweinitzii, Dew. Sterile spikes commonly 2, the lower often 

 pistillate at the base ; fertile spikes 3-4, cylindrical, someivhat drooping, densely 

 flowered, often staminate at the apex, and occasionally the lower rather compound 



at the base, on smooth nearly included stalks; perigynia ascending, oblong-ovoid, 

 rather lightly few-nerved, tapering into a smooth short-toothed beak, a little longer 

 than the lanceolate roughly long-awned scale. — Wet swamps. New England, New 

 Jersey, AV. New York, and northward: not common. — Culm 10'- 15' high, 

 smooth : bracts and leaves 2" -3" wide, smooth except the margins, much ex- 

 ceeding the culm : fertile spikes {2' -3' long, rather narrow) and the whole plant 

 turning straw-color. Perigynia 2J"-3" long, thin. 



142. C. utricul^ta, Boott. Sterile spikes 3-4 ; fertile spikes 2-5, com- 

 monly 3, rather distant, sessile, or the lowest (sometimes loose and attenuated at 

 the base), peduncled, cylindrical (l^'-4' long) thick, and densely very many- 

 flowered; perigynia ovate, either ventricose and abruptly or inclining to elliptical 



and more gradually contracted into a cylindrical smooth beak, longer than the 

 lanceolate very acute or awn-pointed scale; culm stout and thick, obtusely an^^ular, 

 spongy at base (2°-3° high); leaves flat (3' -4" broad), pale, nodose-reticu- 

 lated. (C. ampullacea, var. utriculata of former ed.) Swamps, New England 

 to Penn., Michigan, and common northward. — Fruit sometimes almost that 

 of C. vesicaria, sometimes that of C. ampullacea, into which it merges north- 

 ward ; the rough mostly awn-likc points of the scale usually distinguish it from 

 both European species. 



143. C. Vaseyi, Dew. Differs from the last in the slender culm with acute 

 rough angles ; fertile spikes (2 or 3) looser and fewer-flowered ; perigynia more 

 tapering into the beak, and scales less pointed ; from C. vesicaria, L. of Europe 

 (of which it is the nearest representative) in the more pointed scales and fewer- 

 nerved perigynia tapering gradually into a longer beak; from the next (into 

 which it probably passes) by the larger elongated-ovate perigynia tapering into a 

 slender beak (the roughness of which, indicated by Dr. Boott, is rarely obvious. 



