C. panícea, L. Strict, often stiff, glaucous-blue 1–2° high; culm smooth; bracts 1–2´ long; spikes 1–3, scattered, colored, peduncled, erect, rather compact or loose below, seldom 1´ long; perigynium ovoid, yellow or purple, somewhat turgid, scarcely nerved, the point usually curved, mostly longer than the purple-margined scale.—Fields, E. Mass. and R. I. (Nat. from Eu.)
[=][=] Very strict, densely glaucous.
78. C. lívida, Willd. Culms 18´ high or less; leaves narrow, often becoming involute; spikes 1 or 2 and aggregated or approximate, or rarely a third nearly radical, sessile or nearly so, erect, narrow; perigynium ovoid-oblong, nerved, granular, beakless, the point straight or nearly so, orifice entire; scale obtuse, mostly a little shorter than the perigynium.—Pine-barrens of N. J., and sphagnum swamps northward to N. Eng. and L. Superior; local. (Eu.)
[*] 6.—[+] 4. Bicolòres.
79. C. aùrea, Nutt. Low and slender, 1° high or less; bracts exceeding the culm; spikes 2–4, all but the lowest usually approximate, peduncled or the upper one or two sessile, erect, loosely few-flowered or sometimes becoming ¾´ long, at maturity yellow or brown, the terminal one frequently pistillate above; perigynium fleshy at maturity, nerved, longer than the blunt scale.—Wet meadows and springy banks, throughout; rather common.
[*] 6.—[+] 5. Digitàtæ.
[++] Spikes two or more.
80. C. ebúrnea, Boott. Exceedingly slender and capillary, erect, 4–12´ high, stoloniferous; leaves shorter than the culm; staminate spike very small and very short-peduncled, overtopped by the two upper pistillate spikes; pistillate spikes 2–4, approximate or the lowest remote, all stalked, erect, 2–6-flowered; perigynium very small, almost nerveless, smooth and becoming black and shining at full maturity; scale white and thin, obtuse, shorter than the perigynium.—Tufted in sandy or light soils from N. Eng. to Ky. and Neb.; frequent.
81. C. Richardsòni, R. Br. Rather stiff, 4–9´ high, stoloniferous; sheaths short, purple or brown; staminate spike stout and mostly short-peduncled; pistillate spikes 1–2, approximate, the very short stalks included, erect, compact, less than ½´ in length; perigynium obovoid, firm, hairy, the very short beak entire or erose; scale brown with a conspicuous white-hyaline margin, obtuse or pointless, and longer than the perigynium.—Dry ground, western N. Y. to Ill., and northwestward; rare.
82. C. pedunculàta, Muhl. Low and diffuse, 3–10´ high, forming mats; leaves abundant, very green, flat and firm, longer than the weak culms; staminate spike very small, with the uppermost pistillate spike sessile at its base; pistillate spikes 2–4 on each culm, scattered and long-peduncled from green sheaths, erect or spreading, many other spikes nearly or quite radical and very long-stalked, all 3–8-flowered; perigynium triangular-obovate, smooth or very slightly pubescent above, the short and nearly entire beak somewhat oblique; scale green or purple, truncate and cuspidate, mostly a little longer than the perigynium.—Dry woods and banks, N. Eng. to Va. (Kennedy) and Minn.; frequent northward.