carex CYPERACB^E 709 



C. macrocephala Willd. in Herb, Spring. Syst iii, 808. Stems stout, 

 3-angled, 4-12 inches high, from long running rootstocks : leaves stiff, 1-4 

 lines wide, rough on the margins, as long or longer than the stem : spikes 

 densely aggregated into an oblong or ovate head 1-3 inches long by 1-1 >£ 

 inches thick, subtended by slender bracts : perigynia 6-8 lines long, 2 lines 

 or more thick, ovate from a truncate base, produced above into a subulate 

 deeply 2-toothed beak nearly as long as the body, the angles conspicuosly 

 margined with dentate wings, longer than the ovate acuminate scales. On 

 sandy banks along the coast of Oregon and Washington. 



C. stipata Muhl. Willd. Sp. PI. 233. Stems smooth, erect, 1-3 feet 

 high: leaves flat, 3-4 lines wide, shorter than the stem, the upper ones 

 sometimes exceeding the spike: bracts, bristle-like or wanting: spikes 

 numerous, yellowish, crowded into an oblong cluster 1-4 inches long, the 

 lowest sometimes branched: staminate flowers few, always terminal: peri- 

 gynia lanceolate, 2-2^ lines long, about a line thick at the base, gradually 

 tapering into a rough flattened 2-toothed beak 1-2 times as long as the 

 body, longer than the ovate or lanceolate acuminate hyaline scale. Com- 

 mon in wet places. Brit. Columbia to California and across the continent. 



§ Multiflorje Kunth Enum. PL ii, 387. Heads various, 

 mostly loosely flowered, sometimes panicled, yellow or tawny. 

 Spikes short. Staminate flowers sometimes occupying whole 

 spikes in the middle or at the apex of the head. Perigynia 

 mostly small and short, nearly nerveless in some species, becom- 

 ing nearly lanceolate and more or less prominently nerved, firm 

 in texture. 



C. Gayana Desv.. Fl. Chile, 205. Stems 1-2 feet high, scabrous: leaves 

 1-2 lines wide, shorter than the stem : spikes aggregated into an oblong or 

 ovoid head 6-10 lines long by 4-7 lines thick, dioecious or nearly so: scales 

 membranous, chestnut color with hyaline margins, ovate, acuminate, cari- 

 nate, cuspidate : perigynia chestnut color, broadly ovate, cordate, stipitate 

 at base, tipped with a minute conical beak with an entire orifice, shorter 

 than the scale. Idaho to Colorado. 



C. marcida Boott Hook. Fl. ii, 212, t. 213. Stems slender, 1-2 feet 

 high, scabrous: leaves a line wide, shorter than the stem : heads 8-15 

 lines long, 3-5 lines thick, sometimes nearly dioecious, dull brown, com- 

 posed of many ovate crowded or contiguous closely imbricated spikes 2-3 

 lines long by a line thick, the lower compound, the upper simple : perigynia 

 nearly black at maturity, orbicular with a short, or ovate with a longer, 

 bidentate beak, stipitate, equalling the ovate acute or cuspidate hyaline- 

 margined scale. In meadows, California to Brit. Columbia and Colorado. 



Var. debilis Bailey Proc. Am. Acad, xxii, 136. Small and slender, 

 afoot or less high, the stems mostly exceeding the very narrow leaves : 

 perigynia smaller and more contracted at base. Along streams, eastern 

 Oregon. 



C. teretiuscula Goodn. Trans. Linn. Soc. ii, 163. Stems slender, 

 erect or reclining, very rough, at least above, 1-2 feet long : leaves mostly 

 less than a line wide, shorter than or sometimes equalling the stem : spikes 

 several or numerous, staminate above, in a narrowly oblong compact or 

 interrupted terminal cluster 1-2 inches long: perigynia ovate, smooth, dark 

 brown, slightly more than half a line long, truncate or rounded at base, 

 tapering into a flat conic beak about as long as the body, about equalling 

 the ovate brownish acute or short-awned scales. In swamps and wet mead- 

 ows, Idaho to Brit. Columbia and Hudson Bay. 



Var. prairea Britton. Clusters of spikes compound, branched, the 



