386 



CYPERACEiE. 



Carex. 



Culm 12-18 inches high, triangular, leafy, smooth. Leaves about 2-o- lines long, smooth 

 or a little pubescent, pale green. Spikes 4-5, from one half to three fourths of an inch long, 

 8 - 13-flowered ; the lower half of the uppermost one staminate ; the scales whitish, lanceo- 

 late and rather obtuse. Peduncles filiform and exserted. Fertile scales broader than the 

 sterile, with a prominent rough keel. Perigynium about 2 lines long, erect, indistinctly nerved ; 

 the orifice membranaceous and somewhat produced. Achenium triquetrous, oval, crowned 

 with the continuous style : stigmas short, pubescent. 



Wet meadows ; western part of the State : rare. Fl. May. Fr. June. 



37. Carex Davisii, Schwein. Sf Torr. Davis's Sedge. 



Spikes mostly 4, somewhat distant, cylindrical-oblong, few-flowered, rather thick, peduncu- 

 late and somewhat nodding, the uppermost one staminate below, the others all fertile ; peri- 

 gynium oblong, somewhat inflated, acute, smooth, indistinctly nerved, slightly 2-toolhed, about 

 as long as the awned scale. — Schwein. <§• Torr. Car. I. c. p. 326 ; Torr. Cyp. p. 409. C. 

 aristata, Dew. Car. I. c. 7. p. 277, and 9. t. A. /. 1 (not of R. Br.). C. Torrcyana, Dew. 

 I. c. 10. p. 47 ; Beck, hot. p. 436 ; Kunth, enum. 2. p. 468 (excl. syn. C. Davisii and C. 

 alpestris, Dew.). C. (anonymos) no. 4, Muhl. gram. p. 254. 



Culm about a foot and a half high, triquetrous, leafy, rough above. Leaves about 2 lines 

 wide, rough on the margin, often a little pubescent. Spikes about an inch long, on exserted 

 peduncles ; the terminal one somewhat clavatc from the imbricated slender scales at the base, 

 rarely all staminate : fertile spikes sometimes only 2. Fertile scales ovate, whitish, acuminate 

 and tapering into a conspicuous rough bristle, which is often longer than the perigynium ; the 

 keel greenish. Perigynium about 2\ lines long, rather acute at the base, with a short beak, 

 which is 2-toothed at the orifice. Achenium ovate-triquetrous, puncticulate-stiiate. Style 

 continuous. 



Wet meadows, along rivers ; valley of the Hudson above the Highlands, and in the northern 

 and western counties : rather frequent. Fl. May. Fr. June. The name under which this 

 species was first described by my friend Prof. Dewey, was changed (as there was a C. aristata 

 of R. Brown) to C. Davisii, in the monograph of Dr. de Schweinitz and myself, and published 

 before Prof. Dewey himself named the plant a second time. He was mistaken in supposing 

 this publication of Schwein. & Torr. was subsequent to his. 



E. Spikes several ; one or more of the terminal ones entirely staminate ; the rest pistillate. 



* Sligmas 2. 



38. Carex rigida, Gooden. Rigid Sedge. 



Staminate spike mostly solitary, erect ; fertile spikes 2-4, on short naked peduncles, 

 rather remote, oblong-cylindrical, few-flowered ; perigynium oval-elliptical, rather acute at 

 each end, smooth, with a short entire beak, about as long as the ovate-oblong (blackish) some- 

 what obtuse scale. — Gooden. in Linn, trans. 2. p. 193. t. 22. /. 10 ; Schk. Car. t. U.f. 71 ; 



