52 CYPEEACEA E. 



5. ABILDGAARDIA Yahl, Enum. 2: 296. 1806. 



Low, perennial or animal sedges, with slender culms, narrow or setaceous 

 basal leaves, the involucre usually of 1 small bract, the flattened spikelets soli- 

 tary or few together, several-naany-flowered. Scaly imbricated in 2 rows, 

 keeled, deciduous. Bristles none. Stamens 1-3. Style pubescent, deciduous, 

 its base swollen. Stigmas 3. Achene trigonous. [Commemorates P. S. Abild- 

 gaard, Danish botanist.] About 15 species of tropical and subtropical dis- 

 tribution, the following typical. 



1. Abildgaardia monostachya (L.) Vahl, Enum. 2: 296. 1806. 



Cyperus monostacliyos L. Mant. 180. 1771. 



Fimbristylis monostachya Hassk. PI. Jav. Ear. 61. 1848. 



Perennial, glabrous; culms tufted, very slender, smooth, thickened at the 

 base, 1-4 dm. high. Leaves setaceous, 0.5 mm. wide, about half as long as the 

 culm ; involucral bract short, rarely as long as the spikelet ; spikelet ovate or 

 ovate-lanceolate, flat, 1-1.5 cm. long, about 5 mm. wide; scales ovate, keeled, 

 mucronate, pale greenish-brown with white margins; style villous, with 3 short 

 branches; achene obovoid, 2-2.5 mm. long, 3-angled, yellowish, tuberculate. 



Grassy places and scrub-lands, Great Bahama, Andros, New Providence, Cat 

 Island, Fortune Island, Inagua : Florida; Cuba to Porto Rico; St. Jan to Tobago; 

 Anegada ; continental tropical America and Old World tropics. Flat-spiked Rush. 



6. SCIKPUS L. Sp. PI. 47. 1753. 



Annual or perennial* very small or very large sedges, with leafy culms or 

 the leaves reduced to basal sheaths. Spikelets terete or somewhat flattened, 

 solitary, capitate, spicate or umbellate, subtended by a 1-several-leaved in- 

 volucre or the involucre wanting in some species. Scales spirally imbricated 

 all around, usually all fertile, the 1-3 lower sometimes empty. Flowers per- 

 fect. Perianth of 1-6, slender or rigid, short or elongated, barbed, pubescent 

 or smooth bristles, or none in some species. Stamens 2-3. Style 2-3-cleft, not 

 swollen at the base, wholly deciduous from the achene, or its base persistent 

 as a subulate tip. Achene triangular, lenticular or plano-convex. [Latin 

 name of the Bulrush, said to be from sirs, the Celtic word for rushes.] About 

 200 species of very wide geographic distribution. Type species: Scirpus 

 lacustris L. 



Bracts of the involucre several : scales long-awned ; culm trigonous. 1. S. rohustus. 

 Bract of the involucre only 1 ; scales short-tipped ; culm terete. 2. S. validus. 







1. Scirpus rcbustus Pursh, Fl. Am. Sept. 56. 1814. 



Perennial by rootstocks ; culm stout, stiff, 3-angled with flat sides, smooth, 

 0.5-1.4 m. tall. Leaves dark green, smooth, 5-10 mm. wide ; involucral leaves 

 2-4, elongated, similar to the lower ones; spikelets ovoid-oblong, stout, 1.5-2.5 

 cm. long, 8-10 mm. in diameter, 6-20 together in a dense terminal cluster; scales 

 ovate, brown, puberulent, thin, the midvein excurrent into an, at length, re- 

 flexed awn 3-5 mm. long ; bristles 1-6, fragile, shorter than the achene, or none ; 

 style 3-cleft; achene compressed, flat on the face, convex or with a low ridge 

 on the back, obovate-orbicular, dark brown, shining, 3 mm. long. 



Marshes, Little Inagua : Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the United States. Salt 

 Marsh Bulrush. 



