T. Holm — Studies in the Cyperacece. 265 



shoots with a central inflorescence (the second season), 

 and finally floral shoots with only a very few, one or two, 

 green leaves, bnt with the base covered with several 

 brown, scale-like. 



Regarding the inflorescence there is only one staminate 

 spike, and one or two lateral, pistillate; the subtending 

 bracts are not sheathing. Some deviations have been 

 observed, namely: the terminal spike may be androgy- 

 nous or gynaeoandrous ; the terminal spike may be the 

 only one developed, and is then purely staminate; the 

 lateral spikes are sometimes androgynous. "While the pis- 

 tillate squamae are of a reddish-brown color in the typical 

 plant, there is also a form in which the squamae are very 

 pale, light-brown or yellowish. This pale form is men- 

 tioned by Anderson 6 as occurring in Scandinavia, and it 

 has also been found in New York, near Frankfort, Herki- 

 mer County, by Dr. Joseph V. Haberer. 



C. laxa Wahlenb. (Figs. 12-14). 



In his Flora Lapponica (1812) Wahlenberg gives an 

 excellent characterization of this species : "Spicis pendu- 

 lis subdensifloris remotis, bracteis vaginantibus foliatis, 

 capsulis oblongis obtusiusculis depressis squamas obtusas 

 aequantibus. " . . . "totum gramen flavescens est atque 

 valde molle et laxum fere ut in C. pallescente. Culmus 

 adeo tenuis et flaccidus ut fere decumbit. ' ' The rhizome 

 is very slender ; it is horizontal and stolonif erous ; the 

 very thin stolons bear small, scale-like leaves, shorter than 

 the internodes, and they grow, close to the surface, in a 

 horizontal direction. With regard to the root-system, the 

 old rhizome bears many long, very thin roots. The floral 

 shoot shows the typical phyllopodic structure, none being 

 apparently aphyllopodic, as is the case of C. limosa. 



According to Hartman 7 the terminal spike is sometimes 

 gynaecandrous, and in specimens from Lapmark we 

 notice also this spike to be androgynous ; in other speci- 

 mens there may be from one to three single, pistillate 

 flowers in some distance below the terminal, staminate 

 spike. The oblong-elliptic perigynia are faintly nerved, 

 and a little longer than the oblong-ovate, obtuse or mucro- 



6 Skandinaviens Cyperaceer. Stockholm, 1849, p. 87. 

 7 Handbok i Skandinaviens Flora. Stockholm, 1879. 



