Harper : Flora of Middle Georgia 331 



Altitude 610 feet. This species does not seem to have been re- 

 ported from as far south as Georgia before. 



Scirpus Georgianus sp. nov. (Plate 22) 



Culm erect, about 5 dm. tall, terete or nearly so, 3-4-leaved. 

 Leaves smooth, the lower ones about 2 dm. longand 1 cm. wide ; 

 sheaths green ; involucral leaves about 3, the longest exceeding 

 the umbel ; umbel thrice compound, many-rayed, the longest rays 

 about 1 dm. long, rather stiff and ascending, the shorter and sec- 

 ondary rays most spreading at right angles ; spikelets green, about 



3 mm. long, 10-1 5 -flowered, in glomerulesof 5-10 ; scales orbicu- 

 lar-ovate, about 1.5 mm. long, with somewhat loosely-spreading 

 awns ; margins thin and membranous, colorless or slightly tinged 

 with brown ; midrib green, with a narrow whitish keel, prolonged 

 into an awn about half as long as the body of the scale with 3 or 



4 short scarious teeth at its apex, giving the whole spikelet a char- 

 acteristic striate and bristly appearance : stamens 3 : style 3 -cleft : 

 achene oblong, about 0.8 mm. long, short-beaked, compressed-tri- 

 angular : bristles none. 



A unique species, allied to S. atrovirens and 6*. polyphylhis 

 (neither of which is known in middle Georgia), but differing 

 from both in its greener spikes, peculiar scales, and absence of 

 bristles. Another distinguishing character is found in the sheaths 

 of the leaves. In the two related species an elongated triangular 

 portion of the summit of the sheath opposite the insertion of the 

 leaf is thin and membranous, while in S. Georgianus this portion 

 is represented by only a narrow horizontal brownish band, as shown 

 in the accompanying plate. 



Scirpus Georgianus is further distinguished from 6*. atrovirens 

 by its more numerous glomerules of fewer spikelets, and from S. 

 polyphylhis by its fever and broader leaves. 



Collected in muddy alluvial soil on the bank of the Middle 

 Oconee River, Clarke Co., May 23, 1897. Accompanied by 

 Ranunculus recurvatus and Thalictrum polygamum. One specimen 

 has been placed in the herbarium of the New York Botanical 

 Garden. 



Explanation of Plate 22 



1. Portion of plant, X %- 



2. Single spikelet, X IO « 



3. A scale, X 2 °- 



4. Achene and style, X 2 °- 



