28 T. Holm — Studies in the Cyperaceoe. 



veiy distinct ; culm erect, stout, triangular, scabrous especially 

 above, from 9 to 68^^"^ in height (the smallest specimens having 

 been collected on Long's Peak, Mt. Elbert and Gray's Peak at 

 12,000 ft. alt.), leafy at the base, phyllopodic ; spikes 2 to 4, 

 bnt mostly 3, roundish and sessile, forming a dense, oval or 

 roundish head, very seldom the lowest remote; the bracts very 

 short, scale-like or the lowest one extended into a short bristle, 

 much shorter than the spike ; the terminal spike gyneecandrous, 

 the lateral purely pistillate ; scales ovate, acute to acuminate, 

 dark purple with pale midrib, shorter than the utricle ; utricle 

 sessile, plano-convex, varying from broadly elliptical to round- 

 ish, granulated, glabrous or minutely denticulate along the 

 upper margins, two-nerved (the marginal), spreading at maturity, 

 yellowish and purplish spotted to almost black when mature, 

 terminated by a beak of variable length, emarginate to biden- 

 tate ; stigmata 3, seldom 2. 



In high alpine specimens the utricle becomes wholly glabrous 

 and the beak longer, and it was in such plants that the number 

 of stigmata was observed to be, sometimes, only two. 



Carex chalclolepis sp. n. (figs. 1-5). 



Phizome csespitose, the leaf-sheaths persisting, purplish or 

 brown ; leaves shorter than the culm, relatively narrow, but 

 flat, erect, scabrous along the margins ; culm slender and weak, 

 often reclining, triangular, scabrous or nearly glabrous, leafy 

 at the base, from 17 to 75^"^ in height, (the tallest being those 

 from Pagosa Peak), phyllopodic ; spikes 3 to 4, dense-flowered 

 and thick, from 1 to I'b"^^ in length and V"^ in thickness, 

 shining brown, " copper-colored," contiguous, sessile or the 

 lowest very shortly jDcduncled and subtended by a short, fili- 

 form bract, the other bracts merely scale-like ; an empty, 

 sheathing and foliaceous bract is nearly always observable in 

 some distance, varying from 2 to 6^"" below the inflorescence ; 

 scales of staminate flow^ers varying from lanceolate and acute 

 (fig. 1) to elliptical ; scales of pistillate flowers ovate and acu- 

 minate (fig. 2) or elliptical oblong to lanceolate (fig. 4), narrower, 

 but longer tlian the utricle, dark purplish or reddish brown 

 with the apex and margins more or less hyaline, but with the 

 midrib seldom visible ; utricle sessile, erect, ovoid (fig. 3) or 

 almost orbicular (fig. 5), slightly plano-convex, granulated, two- 

 nerved (the marginal), minutely scabrous along the upper 

 margins, yellowish green ^\\t\\ purplish spots or uniformly 

 dark-colored, terminated by a short, emarginate to bidentate 

 beak ; stigmata 3. 



The accompanying figures illustrate the scales and utricles 

 of 6^. chalciolepis from Pagosa Peak (figs. 1-3), and Mt. Kelso 

 (figs. 4-5), while fig. 6 represents the utricle with the scale of 



