584 



CYPERACE^E. (SEDGE FAMILY.) 



light-brown scale; cmm (2° -4° high) rough and sharply angled above, leafy below, 

 the pale leaves (3" -4" wide), rough on the edges, their surface and the sheaths 

 smooth. — Varies in size (but usually tall) ; and with the lower fertile scales often 

 very long-awned, the fruit imperfect and deformed (var. morbida, Carey in 

 Sill. Jour. C. paleacea of authors). — Wet grounds by streams : common. 



56. C. gynandra, Schw., Boott. Sheaths rough with minute hairiness; 

 fertile spikes rather thicker and looser, and oftener staminate at the apex ; peri- 

 gynia more ovate or oblong and elliptical ; the scales longer and less spreading 

 but mostly shorter-awned : otherwise as in the preceding, — to which it is very 

 nearly related. — In similar situations, but less common, from New England to 



ePenn. and Michigan. 



-t- *- Stigmas 3 : perigynium obtusely triangular, indistinctly few-nerved, more 

 or less compressed : pistillate spikes on filiform drooping stalks. — Lim6s,e. 



57. C. Barrattii, Schw. & Torr. Sterile spike mostly single, sometimes 2 or 

 even 3, dark purple ; fertile mostly 2 or 3, cylindrical, commonly staminate at the top; 

 lower bract usually shorter than the culm ; sheaths obsolete or minute ; peri- 

 gynia oval or oval-lanceolate, obliquely divergent, scarcely notched at the point, 

 about the length of the ovate and blunt black-purple scale; culm (l°-2° high) 

 sharply triangular, nearly smooth, longer than the glaucous flat leaves; the old 

 sheaths at base splitting into threads. (C. flacea, of former ed., and probably a 

 mere geographical variety of that European species. ) — Marshes, New Jersey 

 near the coast, Collins, Knieskern ; and Townsend, Delaware, W. M. Canby. 



58. C. limdsa, L. Staminate spike solitary ; fertile 1 - 2, oblong, 10-20- 

 flowered, occasionally with staminate flowers at the apex ; bracts very narrow, the 

 lowest shorter than the culm ; perigynia ovate, with a minute entire point, about 

 equal to the ovate mucronate dull or purplish-brown scale. — Peat-bogs, New Eng- 

 land to Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and northward. — Culm 6' -12' high, erect, 

 sharply triangular, longer than the acute and rigid keeled leaves. (Eu.) 



59. C. rariflora, Smith. Resembles the last (of which it was thought to 

 be a variety), but smaller, 4' -9' high; culm obtuse-angled; leaves flatter and 

 rather broader; pistillate spikes with only 5-10 less crowded flowers; peri- 

 gynia very short-pointed or bluntish, rather shorter than and involved in the 

 broadly-ovate black-purple scale. — Mt. Katahdin, Maine (G. L. Goodale), and 

 northward. (Eu.) 



60. C. irrigua, Smith. Staminate spike solitary ; the fertile 2-4, ovoid or 

 oblong, occasionally staminate at the apex, or with a few sterile flowers at the 

 base ; low st bract as wide as the leaves, longer than the culm ; perigynia roundish- 

 ovate or obovate, with an entire orifice, much shorter than the tapering and slender- 

 pointed dark purple scale. (C. Magellanica, Lam., according to Boott. C. limbsa, 

 var. irrigua, Wahl. C. paupercula, Michx. ) — Peat-bogs, New England to Penn., 

 Wisconsin, and northward. — Taller than No. 58, growing in loose clumps, with 

 weaker and nodding stems, often exceeded by the leaves. (Eu.) 



* * Uppermost spike club-shaped, pistillate above and staminate at the base ; the rest 

 all fertile or with a few sterile flowers below: lowest bract leaf-like, scarcely 

 equalling the culm, with minute light-brown auricles and no sheaths : culm 

 and leaves of a pale glaucous-green. — AtrAt^b. 



