535 
CYPERACEA2. (SEDGE FAMILY.) 
culms slender (9*- 18 ; high) ; leaves narrowly linear; clusters few- 
flowered, the lower lateral when present peduncled; bracts ciliate; 
tubercles of the perianth approximated in 3 pairs at the base of the 
shining warty-roughened achenium. —Swamps and hills, S. Penn¬ 
sylvania and southward : also Monroe county, New York, Dr. Brad¬ 
ley, New Hampshire, Carey , and Uxbridge, Massachusetts, Robbins. 
July. 
§2. Hypoporum, Nees.— Perianth wanting: achenium often punc¬ 
tured at the base: stamens 1-2. 
5. S* verticillata, Muhl. Smooth; culms simple and slen¬ 
der (6'-10' high), terminated by an interrupted spike of 4-6 rather 
distant sessile clusters ; bracts minute ; leaves linear; achenium glob¬ 
ular, rough-wrinkled, short-pointed, the triangular naked base with¬ 
out pores.—Swamps, Pennsylvania, Muhlenberg, Yates county, New 
York, Sartwell. June. 
16 . cIbex, L. Sedge.* 
Staminate and pistillate flowers separated ( monoecious ), either 
borne together in the same spike (androgynous), or in separate 
spikes on the same stem, very rarely on distinct plants (dioecious). 
* Contributed by John Carey, Esq., who has also communicated the subjoined 
explanatory note. 
“ In arranging the Carices for your work, I have had constantly in view the species 
comprehended within your geographical range, and have framed the sections and 
subsections with especial reference to these, without regard to other excluded species 
belonging, in many cases, to the same groups, but exhibiting peculiarities which 
would require the combining characters to be modified or changed. Indeed, most of 
my subsections would, in a monograph of the genus, require to stand as distinct sec¬ 
tions, with appropriate subdivisions. I have thought it an assistance to the student 
to give a leading name to the principal groups, and in some cases have adopted 
those already suggested by different authors; but as I am uncertain whether the 
characters on which I rely are in accordance with their views, I have cited no au¬ 
thorities under such subsections. I have endeavoured to bring the allied groups (as 
I understand them) as nearly together as I could ; but this, of course, is not always 
practicable in any lineal arrangement. It might, however, have been done with 
much greater satisfaction on a larger and more comprehensive scale. I have retain¬ 
ed the small artificial group Psyllophorae, from its manifest convenience, but should 
not have done so in a more philosophical work. Upon the whole, I am inclined to 
hope that the present will at least possess this one advantage over the hitherto more 
artificial arrangement in general use, — that a student, when acquainted with one 
species of a group, will be enabled to recognize the co-species for himself, whilst a 
merely artificial enumeration must at times place very incongruous forms in juxta¬ 
position. Any increased difficulty, if such there be, in commencing the study of this 
vast and intricate genus upon principles of natural classification, will be amply re¬ 
paid by the more accurate knowledge of structure thus obtained, than by a mere re¬ 
liance on the loose external characters derived from the number and position of the 
spikes. — I shall be well satisfied if my attempt shall be an assistance to others in 
doing far better, hereafter.” 
