38. Carex Ursina Dewey. Bear Sedge

Fig. 905

Carex ursina Dewey, Am. Journ. Sci. 27: 240. 1835. C. glareosa var. ursina Bailey, Carex Cat. 3. 1884.

Culms low, tufted, erect or slightly curving, 2 1/2' or less tall, smooth, from slender rootstocks. Leaves 1" wide or less, involute toward apex, about equalling the culm; bracts usually absent; spike solitary (or rarely with a very small second one at base), brown, obovoid or suborbicular, 2"-3 1/2" long, 2" wide, gynae-candrous, but slightly clavate at base; perigynia 7-15, appressed, ovate, not margined or serrulate, 1" long, a little more than 1/2" wide, rounded and stipitate at base, light colored, weakly nerved, abruptly tipped with a very minute beak; scales ovate, strongly brownish-tinged, obtuse, slightly shorter than perigynia; achene filling perigynium; stigmas 2.

Circumboreal. Summer.

39. Carex Lachenalii Schk. Arctic Hare's-Foot Sedge

Fig. 906

Carex Lachenalii Schk. Riedgr. 51, pl. Y, f. 79. 1801. Carex lagopina Wahl. Kongl. Vet. Acad. Handl. (II.) 24: 145. 1803.

Culms stiff, erect, smooth, except immediately beneath head, 3'-16' tall, from slender rootstocks. Leaves flat, not involute, 1/2"-1 1/2" wide, shorter than the culm, bracts very short or wanting; spikes 2-6, gynaecandrous, oblong, dark brown, narrowed at the base, 2 1/2"-5" long, 1 1/2"-2 1/2" thick, densely many-flowered, clustered at the summit or the lower somewhat separated; perigynia appressed-ascending, elliptic or obovate, 1"-1 3/4" long, firm, lightly several-nerved, narrowed at the base, rather abruptly tipped by the beak; scales ovate, brown, hyaline-margined, obtuse to acutish, shorter than the perigynia; achene filling perigynium; stigmas 2.

Circumboreal. extending south to Quebec and Labrador and in the western mountains to Colorado and California. Summer.

Carex helvola Blytt, supposed to be a hybrid between this species and Carex canescens L., is reported from Greenland and Labrador.

40. Carex Amphigena (Fernald) Mackenzie. Northern Clustered Sedge

Fig. 907

C. glareosa var. amphigena Fernald, Rhodora 8: 47. 1906. C. glareosa Wahl. Flora Danica 14: pl. 2430, and of most authors. C. amphigena Mackenzie, Bull. Torr. Club 37: 246. 1910.

Resembling Carex glareosa and Carex Lachenalii. Culms weak and slender, 2'-18' tall, smooth, except immediately beneath head, from slender rootstocks. Leaves narrow, 1/4"-3/4" wide, involute; spikes 2-8, gynaecandrous, oblong or subglobose, 2 1/2"-6" long, 1 1/2"-2" wide, brown, subtended by very small scale-like bracts; perigynia 5-10, broadly elliptic, 1 1/4" long, 3/4" wide, strongly several-nerved, pale or brownish at maturity; scales ovate, obtusish, brown with hyaline margins; achene filling perigynium; stigmas 2.

Circumboreal, extending south along the coast to Labrador and Quebec. Summer. Erroneously illustrated in our first edition as Carex glareosa Wahl.