8o 



FIELD COLUMBIAN MUSEUM BOTANY, VOL. III. 



mm., ferruginous to chestnut. Glumes broadly ovate, obtuse or emar- 

 ginate, mucronate, thickly spotted with chestnut or purplish brown 

 ("purpureo pimctatce," Vahl), with a green keel, fimb'riate-ciliate, 

 sparsely pubescent with minute barb-like hairs, especially toward the 

 summit. Style 2-cleft to near its base. Bristles 6, reddish brown, 

 retrorsely barbed, longer than the achene. Achene grayish black 

 when mature (^'flavescens' 1 '' before it is fully ripe), obovoid, narrowed 

 at the base, abruptly mucronate 1.41.5x2 mm.; in section unequally 

 biconvex; the surface marked by irregular hexagonal reticulations, 

 the interspaces occupied each by a small papilla. 



Hab. Aguada de Labcah, July 30, 1865, Sclwtt 5660, 567, 

 salt swamps, Sisal, Oct. 25, 1865, 690; abundant on the margins of 

 the shallower cenote"s, 8 feet high, Izamal, Feb. to March, Gaumer 

 423 (Scirpus lacustris? Field Col. Mus. Bot. 1:290). 



Called HALAL, "cane," by the Mayas, and used for making 

 floor mats, called POP. 



FIMBRISTYLIS Vahl Enum. 2:285. 



Flowers perfect, glumes many, spirally imbricated, lower short 

 and empty. Perianth none. Stamens 3. Style 2-cleft, wholly 

 deciduous. Achene biconvex. Inflorescence more or less compound 

 umbellate. 



Achene faintly reticulated 

 Prominently ridged: 



Pale, tapering at summit 

 Dark, truncate at summit 



ferruginea. 



laxa. 

 spadicea. 



Fimbristylis ferruginea (L.) Vahl Enum. 2:291. 



Scirpus ferrugineus L. 



Fimbristylis stans Spreng. 



Bracts about 3, leaf-like, 1-3 cm. long. Inflorescence umbellate, 

 several rayed with one spike sessile; rays 2-3 cm. long; spikes fer- 

 ruginous, ovoid, obtuse, 8-10x4-5 

 mm., sometimes continuing to grow 

 and fruit at the apex after the lower 

 glumes and achenes have fallen, mak- 

 ing entire length of rachis nearly 2 cm.; 

 bractlets short, setaceous, glumes fer- 

 ruginous with green midrib, ovate, sub- 

 acute, apiculate, upper part minutely 

 pilose, 3-times the length of the achene. 

 Style twice the length of the achene, 

 broadly flattened and villous below the forking. Achene pale brown, 

 obovoid, 1.1x1.4 mm.; in section irregularly lenticular, the dorsum 

 gibbous; surfaces faintly marked by longitudinal rows of laterally 

 elongated hexagonal reticulations. 



Hab. Borders of brackish lagoon north of island of Cozumel, 

 Millspaugh PI. Utowamr i^g4(Fimhristylis spadicea Field Col. Mus. Bot. 

 2:29). 



