CYPERACEAE. 47 



or glomerate, simple or little compound, the rays up to 3 cm. long; spikelets 

 short-spicate, 1-2 cm. long, about 3 mm. wide, with 5-10 achenes; scales brown, 

 ovate, apiculate, strongly striate-nerved ; achene obovoid, 3-angled. 



Sand dunes and white-lands, throughout the archipelago from Abaco and Great 

 Bahama to the Caicos Islands, Little Inagua and Cay Sal : Bermuda ; Florida ; 

 West Indies ; Mexico. Consists of several races differing in stalked or sessile 

 spikes, width of leaves, the scales ovate to elliptic-oblong. Recorded by Herrick as 

 C. Vahlu Steud. SAXD or COAST CYPERUS. 



12. Cyperus confertus Sw. Prodr. 20. 1788. 



Perennial by short rootstocks; culms rather slender, 1-4 dm. high, clus- 

 tered. Leaves 3-5 mm. wide, the basal ones as long as the culms or shorter, 

 those of the involucre 2 dm. long or less, the longer much surpassing the in- 

 florescence; umbel simple, 1-7-rayed; heads subglobose, about 1 cm. thick; 

 spikelets greenish-yellow, 5-7 mm. long, about 2 mm. wide, flat, bearing 5-9 

 aehenes ; fertile scales ovate, keeled, strongly striate, tipped with short, some- 

 what curved awns; stamens 3 or sometimes 2; achene oblong-obovoid, 3-angled, 

 1-1.5 mm. long, about half as long as the scale. 



Inagua : Hispaniola to St. Thomas and to Martinique ; Jamaica. Curacao ; 

 northern South America ; Galapagos. CAPITATE CYPERUS. 



13. Cyperus ferax L. C. Eieh. Act. Soc. Hist. Nat. Paris 1: 106. 1792. 



Annual; smooth; culms rather stout, 3-8 dm. tall, usually tufted. Leaves 

 5-10 mm. wide, the lower ones as long as the culm or shorter, those of the 

 involucre 3 or more, the longer equalling or exceeding the umbel ; umbel 

 simple or compound, several-rayed; spikelets linear, subterete, 10-20-flowered, 

 1.5-2.5 cm. long, 1.5-2.5 mm. thick, the ovate-oblong, appressed, yellow-green, 

 7-9-nerved scales scarcely imbricated; stamens 3; style 3-cleft; achene trigo- 

 nous, narrowly obovoid, obtuse. 



Swamps, Abaco, Cat Cay, New Providence, Exumn Chain, Eleuthera : United 

 States ; West Indies ; Central and South America. COARSE CYPERUS. 



14. Cyperus filiformis Sw. Prodr. 20. 1788. 

 Mariscus filiformis H.B.K. Nov. Gen. 1: 213. 1816. 



Perennial; glabrous; culms very slender or filiform, tufted, rather weak, 

 2-7 dm. long. Leaves usually much shorter than the culm, about 2 mm. wide, 

 those of the involucre 1 or 2, mostly longer than the 1 or 2 loose spikes; 

 spikelets 3-10, nearly digitate, 1-2.5 cm. long, about 1 mm. thick, terete, erect 

 or ascending, several-flowered; scales yellowish with a green keel, acutish, 

 shining, faintly striate, ovate, inrolled, not overlapping; achene shorter than the 

 scale, trigonous, ellipsoid, blackish, pointed at both ends. 



Grassy places, New Providence : Cuba to St. Thomas and St. Croix : Jamaica. 

 The Crooked Island reference of Hitchcock proves to be an error, his plant being 

 Schoeniis nigricans L. SLENDER CYPERUS. 



Schoepf records KylUnga wonocepJiala Rottb. as observed by him on New 

 Providence in 1784, but no species of that genus has been collected in the 

 Bahamas by subsequent botanists. 



2. ELEOCHARIS R. Br. Prodr. 1:224. 1810. 



Annual or perennial sedges. Culms simple, triangular, quadrangular, 

 terete, flattened or grooved, the leaves reduced to sheaths or the lowest very 

 rarely blade-bearing. Spikelets solitary, terminal, erect, several-many-flowered, 

 not subtended by an involucre. Scales concave, spirally imbricated all around. 

 Perianth of 1-12 bristles, usually retrorsely barbed, or wanting in some species. 



