[+] 4. Debiles. Terminal spike all staminate (occasionally pistillate above in n. 53); pistillate spikes very narrow and slender, long-exserted and nodding, mostly very loosely flowered; perigynium rather small, not turgid, prominently beaked.—Sp. 51–53.
[+] 5. Gracillimæ. Terminal spike pistillate at top; pistillate spikes habitually thicker than in [+] 4; perigynium ovate-oblong, more or less turgid; the beak short or none.—Sp. 54–57.
[+] 6. Griseæ. Terminal spike staminate; perigynium more or less turgid or plump, often glaucous, scarcely beaked, finely striate; spikes erect.—Sp. 58, 59.
[*] 5. Spirostachyæ. Perigynium smooth or minutely granulated or rarely somewhat serrate on the margins, prominently nerved, mostly yellowish, squarrose, mostly beaked (entirely beakless in n. 63), the orifice entire; staminate spike mostly single; pistillate spikes 2–5, short (usually 1´ long or less), yellow or fuscous, compactly flowered; stigmas 3.—Medium-sized species, growing in meadows and grassy swales.
[+] 1. Granulares. Spikes scattered, cylindrical, the lowest long-stalked; bracts erect, long and leafy; sheaths short or nearly obsolete.—Sp. 60, 61.
[+] 2. Extensæ. Spikes mostly approximate or aggregated at the top of the culm (becoming remote in C. extensa), the lowest 1 or 2 subtended by a long and leafy mostly abruptly spreading and nearly or entirely sheathless bract. Terminal spike sometimes androgynous.—Sp. 62.
[+] 3. Pallescentes. Spikes globular or short-oblong, obtuse, sessile or short-peduncled, approximate at the top of the culm; bracts short, leaf-like, sheathless; perigynium entire at the orifice, the beak none or very short and stout.—Sp. 63, 64.
[*] 6. Dactylostachyæ. Perigynium mostly short and triangular, mostly with a short and straight or curved beak, green or greenish, scarcely inflated; scales of the pistillate spikes mostly whitish (sometimes dark-colored in the Digitatæ), often small; staminate spike mostly one; pistillate spikes short (seldom exceeding 1´), commonly rather loosely flowered and slender (spike single and plant diœcious in n. 83); bracts sheathing, the sheaths often conspicuous and colored.—Low and lax or slender species inhabiting meadows and copses.
[+] 1. Oligocarpæ. Slender and narrow-leaved, with leafy bracts and inconspicuous green sheaths; perigynium rounded on the angles, finely many-striate, often somewhat punctulate as in n. 58, to which the group forms a transition.—Sp. 65–67.
[+] 2. Laxifloræ. Slender and more or less broad-leaved, with mostly leafy bracts, green or purple sheaths, and loosely flowered spikes; perigynium mostly conspicuously three-angled, with a more or less curved beak.—Sp. 68–74.