3. S. pauciflòra, Muhl. Smoothish or hairy; culm slender (9–24´ high); leaves narrowly linear; fascicles few-flowered, the lateral pedunculate, sessile, or wanting; bracts ciliate; achene globose-ovate; the disk a narrow ring bearing 3 pairs of minute tubercles.—N. H. to Ohio, south to Fla. and Tex.
[*][*][*] Achene reticulated or wrinkled.
4. S. reticulàris, Michx. (Pl. 5, fig. 6–10.) Culms slender, erect, scabrous (1–2½° high); leaves linear (1–1½´´ wide), smooth; lateral fascicles 1–3, loose, remote, nearly erect, on short often included peduncles; bracts glabrous; achene globose, regularly reticulated and pitted, not hairy, resting upon a double greenish conspicuously 3-lobed disk, the inner appressed to and deciduous with the achene.—E. Mass. to Fla.—Var. pubéscens, Britton. Edges of reticulations more or less hairy, especially toward the apex; lateral fascicles generally on longer peduncles. Pine-barrens of N. J. to Fla.—Var. obscùra, Britton. Achene bony, its surface with very obscure reticulations, nearly smooth at the summit. R. I. and N. C.
5. S. Torreyàna, Walpers. Culms weak, diffuse, slightly scabrous or smooth; leaves linear (2–4´´ wide), smooth; lateral fascicles loose, on more or less elongated and drooping filiform peduncles; achene irregularly pitted-reticulated or pitted-rugose with the ridges somewhat spirally arranged and more or less hairy (sometimes smooth); otherwise as in the last. (S. laxa, Torr.)—Pine-barrens, N. J. to Fla. and Tex.
6. S. verticillàta, Muhl. Smooth; culms simple, slender (4–24´ high); leaves narrowly linear, fascicles 3–9-flowered, 4–6, sessile in an interrupted spikelet; achene globose (½´´ broad), somewhat triangular at base, rough-wrinkled with short elevated ridges; disk obsolete.—E. Mass. to Ont., Minn., and south to the Gulf.
16. CÀREX, Ruppius. Sedge. (By L. H. Bailey.)
Flowers unisexual, destitute of floral envelopes, disposed in spikes; the staminate consisting of three stamens, in the axil of a bract, or scale; the pistillate comprising a single pistil with a bifid or trifid style, forming in fruit a hard lenticular or triangular achene, which is enclosed in a sac (perigynium) formed by the complete union of the borders of a bractlet or of connate bractlets and borne in the axil of a bract, or scale. Staminate and pistillate flowers borne in different parts of the spike (spike androgynous), or in separate spikes on the same culm, or rarely the plant diœcious.—Perennial grass-like herbs with mostly triangular culms, 3-ranked leaves, usually with rough margins and keel, and spikes in the axils of leafy or scale-like bracts, often aggregated into heads. An exceedingly critical genus, the study of which should be attempted only with complete and fully mature specimens. (The classical Latin name, of obscure signification; derived by some from κείρω, to cut, on account of the sharp leaves—as the English name Shear-grass.) (Pl. 5 and 6.)
Synopsis of Sections and Groups.
§ 1. CAREX proper. Staminate flowers forming one or more terminal linear or club-shaped spikes (often pistillate at base or apex). Pistillate flowers usually in distinct and simple mostly peduncled spikes. Cross-section of perigynium circular, obtusely angled, or prominently triangular in outline. Style mostly 3-parted and achene triangular or triquetrous.
[*] 1. Physocarpæ. Perigynium mostly straw-colored at maturity, papery in texture, usually more or less inflated, smooth (sometimes hairy in n. 6), nerved, tapering into a beak as long as or longer than the body; spikes few to many, distinct, compactly flowered; stigmas 3 (2 in n. 10).