REPORT OF THE STATE BOTANIST 



157 



the lowest often distant or remote on a filiform spreading 

 peduncle 1-2' long, loosely flowered ; bracts leafy or filiform, the 

 lowest surpassing the culm ; perigynia small, V wide, ovate, 

 acutish at each end, nerved, entire at the apex, twice longer than 

 the ovate, hyaline scale ; achenium obovate, substipitate. 



Shaded soil in woods. Rare. July. Otsego county. This 

 delicate carex is distinguished from its near relatives by its slen- 

 der, loosety-flowered, erect or spreading spikes and its hairy 

 sheaths. 



56. Carex gracillima Schw. 



Stems 18-30' high, erect, mostly smooth; basal sheaths promi- 

 nently fibrillose ; leaves shorter than the culm, l"-2" wide, radical 

 leaves tufted, 2 # -3£* wide, rough, light green ; staminate spike 

 with or without pistillate flowers at the apex, linear ; pistillate 

 spikes 3-4, linear, the upper 2 or 3 approximate, the lowest dis- 

 tant, all drooping on filiform peduncles, subdensely flowered, or 

 loosely flowered at the base; bracts leafy or filiform, the lowest 

 as long as the culm ; perigynia ovate, nerved, entire at the obtuse 

 apex; scale ovate, obtuse, hyaline, one-half as long as the perigy- 

 nium ; achenium oblong-obovate, apiculate. 



Woods and fields in moist or dry soil. Very common. June. 



Yery rarely the lower spikes have 1 or more additional 

 branches at the base. 



This species is well marked by the blackish purple, fibrillose 

 basal sheaths, and the obtuse perigynia of the linear, subdensely- 

 flowered, drooping spikes. 



Var. humulis Bailey. A much reduced form with 2-12 

 flowered spikes and smaller perigynia. 



C. gracillima x pubescens Howe. 



Stems 15 -30 y high, stiff, rough; leaves 1V-2V wide, roughish 

 and sometimes hairy, shorter than the culm; spikes approximate 

 or the lowest distant, sessile or stalked, erect ; perigynia ovoid, 

 hairy with a short bidentate beak, not unlike an abortive peri- 

 gynium of C. pubescens. (Botanical Gazette, Feb., 1881, p. 169.) 

 (C. Sullivantii Boott.) 



In a swampy meadow. Yonkers, Westchester county. Ib78. 



A similar hybrid, but one more closely resembling C. gracil- 

 lima, occurs in Albany and Greene counties, svhere it was 

 detected by Mr. C . L. Shear. 



