172 



NEW YOBK STATE MUSEUM 



triangular obovate, obscurely nerved, smooth, olive-brown, shin- 

 ing, with a minute round beak, longer than the ovate obtuse or 

 acutish light-brown scale. 



Thin soil on or about limestone ledges. June. 



A very small species, but one easily known by its setaceous 

 leaves and its very small erect pistillate spikes surpassing the 

 staminate one. 



Plant dioecious ; staminate and pistillate spikes of the same size 

 and color ; bracts, when present, scale-like or setaceous, sheathless ; 

 perigynia dark purple, densely hairy, with a short, entire beak ; 

 scales blackish purple. 



83. Carex scirpoidea Mx. 



Stoloniferous ; stems 6 -15' high, slender, erect, smooth ; basal 

 bracts dark purple, acute or obtuse ; leaves subradical, stiff, 

 mostly much shorter than the culm, V wide, smooth ; staminate 

 spike subclavate, \'-\! in length with a small greenish tri-nerved 

 cuspidate bract and dark purple scales ; pistillate spikes i'-l' 

 long, densely flowered ; bracts setaceous, sheathless ; perigynia 

 ovate, very hairy, gradually tapering to a short entire or notched 

 beak, mostly covered by the acutish blackish-purple ciliate scale . 



Thin soil covering rocks. Adirondack mountains July. 



Plant monoecious; staminate spike clavate, sessile or short-stalked; 

 pistillate spikes 1-5, globular-ovoid, oblong or cylindrical, sessile or 

 short-stalked, the upper 2 contiguous or approximate, or all distinct 

 and the lowest subdistant, each subtended by a scale-like or green 

 bract, the lowest often by a leafy one i / -2^ / long; perigynia 

 subrotund, oval or elliptical, obtusely or acutely angled, mostly 

 densely pubescent, abruptly contracted into a slender bifid beak ; 

 scale ovate, commonly brown or purplish, equaling or shorter 



than the perigynia. 



Plant pubescent pubescens. 



Plant glabrous 1 



1 Pistillate spikes on short stems, umbellately clustered, umbellata. 



1 Pistillate spikes not umbellately clustered 2 



2 Bracts sheathing, purplish Richardsonii. 



2 Bracts not sheathing 3 



3 Staminate spike 3" long or less 4 



3 Staminate spike more than Z" long 6 



