neous, sometimes with a subterminal purplish splotch especially when immature; 

 bristles several, brownish, often surpassing the achenial body; style 3-branched; 

 achenial body broadly obovoid, 1.2-1.7 mm. long, obscurely trigonous, the sides 

 convex, surficially pronouncedly large-cellular (the cell walls prominent), lustrous, 

 olivaceous-brown or gray; tubercle pyramidal, 0.6-1 mm. long, usually acute, 

 basally narrower than the body, truncately constricted to the very narrow attach- 

 ment. 



Infrequent in moist or wet sandy soil and seepage areas in e. Tex., May-Nov.; 

 coastal areas, N. Y. to Tex. 



23. Eleocharis Baldwinii (Torr.) Chapm. Fig. 197. 



Tufted annual; culms 6-20 cm. long, 0.1-0.25 mm. thick, ascending or often 

 strongly recurved and stoloniform; sheaths mostly reddish, long-oblique, blunt, 

 hyaline; cleistogamous few-flowered spikelets usually abundant at base of plant 

 among the sheaths; ordinary spikelets mostly narrowly elliptic. 4-7 mm. long, of 

 5 to 10 flowers, frequently proliferating when the recurved culm (stolon) touches 

 the ground; scales pseudodistichous, the lowest linear and with a strong green 

 midnerve, the others progressively broader toward the top of the spikelet, lance- 

 elliptic, 3-4.5 mm. long, buffy to ferruginous-buff", membranous, strictly appressed, 

 acute; bristles several, pallid, about equaling the achenial body or reduced; style 

 3-branched; achenial body ovate, 0.7-0.8 mm. long, whitish-buffy to olive or 

 brownish-olive, trigonous (angles distinct and sides nearly flat), smooth; tubercle 

 pyramidal-trigonous, 0.2-0.3 mm. long, acute, constricted basally. 



In bogs and about pools, near Caddo Lake, La. (part of this lake extends into 

 e. Tex.), summer-fall; N.C., Ga., Fla., La., (Tex.?). 



24. Eleocharis minima Kunth. Fig. 200. 



Tufted annual; culms 3-7 (-10) cm. long, about 0.1 mm. thick, extremely weak, 

 often flexuous and recurved, quadrangulate-sulcate; sheaths dark-reddish, apically 

 long-oblique, blunt, hyaline; reduced (cleistogamous?) spikelets often present at 

 the base of the plant among the culms; ordinary spikelets 2-4 mm. long, ovoid, 5- 

 to 10-flowered, usually blunt; scales ovate to narrowly ovate, blunt or shortly 

 acute, 1.5-2 mm. long, brown and membranous (midrib paler), marginally hya- 

 line; bristles about 5 to 7, whitish, about as long as the body of the achene; style 

 3-branched; achenial body obovoid, 0.7-0.8 mm. long, sharply trigonous (the 3 

 sides slightly convex), ripening through olive-whitish to pale-olive or even dark- 

 olive-gray, often somewhat mottled, darker near the angles and the ends, essen- 

 tially smooth; tubercle sharply pyramidal-trigonous, 0.15-0.3 mm. long and broad, 

 slightly constricted basally. 



Rare in mud and shallow water of lakes, ponds and slow-flowing streams, cypress 

 swamps, in s.e. Tex. (Aransas and Jackson cos.), spring and fall; trop. Am. s. to 

 s. Braz. and n. to Ga., Tex. and Calif. 



25. Eleocharis microcarpa Torr. Fig. 200. 



Tufted annual; culms 4-28 cm. long, (0.1-) 0.15-0.3 mm. thick, mostly erect 

 or ascending (less commonly weak and somewhat flexuous). often quadrangulate- 

 sulcate (at least when dry); sheaths short, stramineous or slightly tinged with pink 

 basally, apically long-oblique, blunt and hyaline; spikelets never at the base of the 

 plant, always terminal on elongate culms, ovoid, 2-5 mm. long, 8- to 15-flowered, 

 often proliferous (sending out culms instead of flowers, usually from the axil of 

 the lowest scale), the spikelet then slightly inclined; lowest scale differentiated, 

 bractlike, sterile, lanceolate to linear, often a third to three fourths the entire 

 length of the spikelet, consisting mostly of a prominent green midnerve with 

 reduced membranous sides; other scales ovate, about 1.5 mm. long, blunt, the 



390 



