406 



CYPERACEjE. 



Carex. 



long, mostly rather few -flowered, more or less distant. Scales sometimes exceeding the 

 perigynium, pale with a green keel, ending in a prolonged rough point. Perigynium 2 lines 

 long, the length nearly twice as great as the diameter, many-nerved, smooth, somewhat obtuse. 

 Achenium oblong, triquetrous, acuminate, smooth. Style stout and somewhat clavate. 



Moist meadows : not frequent. Fl. May. Fr. June. Kunth has confounded this species 

 with C. tetanica. 



78. Carex digitalis, Willd, Slender Wood Sedge. 



Sterile spike solitary ; fertile spikes usually 3, few-flowered and loose, remote, slender, on 

 long exserted loose or somewhat cernuous peduncles ; perigynium ovoid, triquetrous, smooth, 

 striate, with a short beak and a little recurved, entire at the orifice, rather longer than the 

 ovate mucronate awn. — Willd. sp. 4. p. 298 ; Muhl. gram. p. 255 ; Dew. Car. I. c. 11. 

 p. 147 ; Kunth, enum. 2. p. 454, excl. syn. Schwein. 4' Torr. and Ell. C. oligocarpa, 

 Schwein. Torr. 1. c. p. 344, not of Schk. ; Dew. Car. I. c. 10. p. 280, and var. Van- 

 vleckii, t.f. 20. C. Vanvleckii, Schwein. anal. tab. I. c. C. Vieckii, Spreng. syst. 3. p. 821. 



Culm 6-15 inches high, slender, sharply triquetrous, with the angles almost winged. 

 Leaves usually not more than 1-2 lines wide, but sometimes from half an inch to nearly an 

 inch in breadth, light green and somewhat glaucous. Sterile spike on a slender peduncle which 

 arises from the sheath of the uppermost fertile spike, not bracteate ; the scales lanceolate, 

 obtusish, pale brown. Fertile spikes 2-3, sometimes 4, half an inch or more in length, 

 6 - 9-flowered. Scales tawny with a green keel, which is produced into a mucronate point. 

 Perigynia a line and a half long, sharply triangular, acuminated with a very short slightly 

 recurved beak. Achenium obovoid-triquetrous, smooth. Style continuous. 



Woods and hillsides : rare. Fl. May. Fr. June. Dr. Gray has ascertained this to be the 

 genuine C. digitalis of Willdenow. A broad-leaved state of the plant was found by Dr. Crawe 

 in Jefferson county. 



79. Carex oligocarpa, Schk. Small Few-fruited Sedge. 



Sterile spike solitary, pedunculate ; fertile spikes 2-3, very few-flowered, distant, erect, 

 on exserted peduncles ; perigynium oval-triquetrous, attenuate at each end, striate, slightly 

 recurved at the tip, entire, about as long as the ovate mucronate scale. — Schk. Car. 2. p. 58. 

 t. Vvv. /. 170 ; Muhl. gram. p. 242 ; Kunth, enum. 2. p. 457, excl. syn. Torr. and Dew. 

 C. Sartwelliana, Gay. 



var. major : taller, and the fruit larger ; culm and leaves minutely and roughly pubescent. 

 — C. Hitchcockiana, Dew. Car. I. c. 10. p. 274. t. E.f. 17 ; Beck, hot. p. 442 ; Kunth, I. c. 

 p. 457. 



Culm about a foot high (15-24 inches in the large var.), erect, triquetrous. Leaves 2-4 

 lines wide, dark green, overtopping the culm. Sterile spike about half an inch long, and its 

 peduncle about the same length : scales oblong, rather obtuse, tawny with a green keel. 



