Prickly Bog Sedge

Carex mohriana Mackenzie, sp. nov
Very densely cespitose, in large clumps, the rootstock not at all prolonged, the culms 2-7 dm. high, aphyllopodic, very slender, usually weak, sharply triangular, little or not at all roughened above, usually exceeded by the leaves, light-brownish at base and clothed with the dried-up leaves of the previous year, the lower bladeless: leaves with well-developed blades 3 or 4 to a fertile culm, on lower third, but not bunched, the blades thin, deep-green, canaliculate or more or less involute, 1-6 dm. long, 1-2.5 mm. wide, much roughened towards the apex, the sheaths tight, thin and hyaline ventrally, concave, purplish-dotted and scarcely thickened at mouth, the ligule as long as wide; spikes 2-5, aggregated into an ovoid to oblong head 0.75-1.5 cm. long, the terminal gynaecandrous and inconspicuously staminate at base, the lateral sessile and usually pistillate, suborbicular, 4-6 mm. wide and nearly as long, the 4-10 perigynia in several rows, at first ascending, at length widely excurved-spreading; lowest bract usually setaceous, much shorter than the head, the others scale-like; scales broadly ovate, acute to obtusish, much narrower and about two thirds length of bodies of perigynia, whitehyaline with green 3-nerved midvein, the midvein usually not extending to the tip; perigynia concavo-convex, deep-green, membranaceous, ovate, with sharp-edged but not winged margins, serrulate above, 2.25-2.5 mm. long, 1.75 mm. wide, strongly many-nerved both dorsally and ventrally, substipitate, spongy and truncate-cordate at base, contracted into a serrulate beak about one fourth length of body, dorsally obliquely cleft, shallowly bidentate, the teeth minute and the beak white-hyaline save for green margins; achenes lenticular, filling upper part of perigynia, ovate, yellowish, 1.5 mm. long, 1.25 mm. wide, broadly shortstipitate and slightly apiculate; style short, enlarged at base, jointed with achene, at length deciduous; stigmas two, slender, reddish-brown, short.
Tvpe collected in a swamp near Wauchula, Florida, April 15. 1901, .4. H. Curtiss (Second Distr. Pl.S. U.S.) 6761.
Distribution: Known definitely from Florida only. (Specimens examined from Florida.)

Carex howei Mackenzie, Bull. Torrey Club 37: 245. 1910
Carex interior var. capillacea L. H. Bailey, Bull. Torrey Club 20: 426. 1893. (Type from eastern
Massachusetts.) Carex scirpoides var. capillacea Fernald, Rhodora 10: 47. 1908. (Based on C. interior var. capillacea a
L. H. Bailey.) n
Carex delicatula Bickn. Bull. Torrey Club 35: 495. N 1908. (Based on C. interior var. capillacea
L. H. Bailey.) Not C. delicatula C. B. Clarke, S 1908. Carex stellulata var. scirpoides i. capillacea Kukenth.in Engler, Pflanzcnreich 4 20 : 231. 1909. (Based
on C. interior var. capillacea I.. II. Bailey.)
Very densely cespitose, in large clumps, the rootstocks not at all prolonged, the culms 2-7 dm. high, aphyllopodic, very slender, usually weak, sharply triangular, little or not at all roughened above, usually exceeded by the leaves, light-brownish at base, and clothed with the dried-up leaves of the previous year, the lower bladeless; leaves with well-developed blades 3 or 4 to a fertile culm, on lower third, but not bunched, the blades deep-green, thin, canaliculate, or more or less involute, 1-6 dm. long, 0.25-1 mm. wide, much roughened towards the apex, the sheaths tight, thin and hyaline ventrally, the ligule short; spikes 2-4, occasionally 5, more or less strongly separate and forming a head 1-2.5 cm long, the terminal gynaecandrous and more or less long-clavate at base or occasionally staininate, the lab ral and usually pistillate, suborbicular, 4-6 mm. long and about as wide, the 5-10 perigynia in several rows, at first ascending, at length widely excurved-spreading; lowest bract usually
nia, much shorter than the head, the others scale like; scales broadly ovate, very thin, obtusjsh or acutish, narrower and one half to two thirds the length of bodies of the perigynia, whiti-! hyaline with green {-nerved midvein, tinmidvein mostrj oh oli b al
perigynia concavo-c onvex , ovate with entire sharp-edged i>"t not winged margin mm long, i 25 mm. wide, deep green, membranaceous, strongly main nerved dorsall) lightly but strongly several-nerved ventrally, slightK ttipitate, pongy-rounded ■>< abruptly contracted into a shallowly serrulate beak one third or onefourth h length, dot •aDy deft, light-reddish-tinged, bailowlj bident nort and the dorsal suture
and fa! I art H Int.I. valine margin' ■ filling Upper part of p*Ti
gynia. ovate, I U mm. long, I nun wide, ihorl itipitate and short apiculate; tyli ihort, • d with achene, at length i ■ nder,
brown, rath' i
h Type locality: "Eastern Massachusetts. New Jersey, and central Pennsylvania." (Specimens collected in eastern Massachusetts by Wm. Boott, who first called attention to the plant, are taken as the type of C. interior, var. capillacea L. H. Bailey, on which C. Ho-wei is based.)
Distribution: Acid soils, wet sphagnum in swampy woods. Florida to Louisiana and northward to southwestern Nova Scotia, and locally westward to Ohio and Michigan. (Specimens examined from Nova Scotia, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, District of Columbia, Ohio, Michigan, Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi. Louisiana.)