384 CYPERACE^E. (SEDGE FAMILY.) 



loosely flowered at the base), often staminate at the top: perigynium ellipsoid 

 or globose-ovoid, usually gradually tapering into a short beak, broader and com- 

 monly longer than the very acute or rough-awned scale. — Var. minor, Sart- 

 well, is a form smaller in all its parts, with spikes an inch or so long. — 

 Common in swamps from Colorado and Utah northward. Too near the 

 next. 



39. C. ampullacea, Good. Culm rather slender, obtusely angled, not con- 

 spicuously thickened at the base: leaves narrow (f to 2 lines broad), canaliculate, 

 finely and inconspicuously nodulose below, gradually tapering into very long points: 

 spikes fewer, narrower and shorter, more approximate, the lower seldom much ex- 

 serted : perigynium subglobose or globose-elliptic, in typical forms sho'-fty and 

 abruptly beaked, longer than the normally muticous scale. — In similar situa- 

 tions with the last, but evidently less common, from Colorado and Utah 

 northward. (Eu.) 



§ 12. Staminate spikes one or more, long : pistillate spikes one to several, broicn, 

 purple, or greenish, commonly approximate, sessile or peduncled, oblong c* linear, 

 mostly elongated : perigynium not inflated, biconvex, minutely beaked or beck- 

 less, smooth: stigmas 2. — Microrhyxch.£, Drejer. Paludose aud alpine 

 species of upright habit, often growing in tufts or tussocks. Our species 

 fall under the group Acuta, Fries. 



* Perigynium strongly nerved. 



40. C. Jamesii, Torr. Stoloniferous : culm 1 to 2 feet high, rough on 

 the sharp angles, longer than the glaucous, long-pointed leaves: staminate 

 spikes 1 to 4, usually one, large, occasionally bearing a few pistillate flowers 

 at the top : pistillate spikes 2 to 4, erect, the upper sessile or nearly so, the 

 lower more or less peduncled, broadly cylindrical, often inclining to club- 

 shaped ; lower bract often leaf-like : perigynium oval or obovate, ascending, 

 abruptly contracted into a short, toothed (rarely nearly entire) beak, green- 

 ish, about the length of, or a little longer than, the obtuse or abruptly cuspi- 

 date scale, and twice as broad. — Colorado, Utah, and southward. Spikes 

 sometimes purplish. 



Var. Nebraskensis, Bailey. Culm stouter, smooth or nearly so, about 

 the length of the leaves : pistillate spikes mostly short, narrowly cylindrical 

 or terete : perigynium squarrose or spreading, usually rusty brown, a little 

 shorter than the gradually pointed, narrower scale. — C. Xebraskensis, Dew. 

 With the species and eastward. 



* * Perigynium slightly nerved or nerveless. 



«- Robust species [mostly) : bracts leaflike, usually exceeding the 

 culm. 



41. C. laciniata, Boott. Cuhn very sharply angled. 2 to 3 feet high, rough 

 on the angles, at least above : leaves very long : pistillate spikes 3 to 6, dark 

 brown, 1 to 3 inches long, cylindrical and closely flowered, remote, the upper 

 sessile, the lower nodding or spreading on exserted peduncles and loosely 

 flowered at the base : perigynium oval or elliptic, sometimes nearly circular, con- 

 tracted into a short, toothed beak, usually toothed on the angles above (the teeth 

 deciduous with age), faintly several nerved, about the length of the narrow pale- 



