0.3-0.8 mm. thick, slightly compressed or usually merely irregularly several-angled; 

 sheaths usually slightly pinkish basally, apically firm and truncate or only very 

 slightly oblique, not mucronate; spikelets narrowly oblong or cylindric to narrowly 

 elliptic, usually with a blunt point, 3-11 mm. long, of 24 to 44 flowers; scales 

 broadly lanceolate, the lower medial portion brown (the midnerve slightly paler), 

 the margin and the long-attenuate sometimes bifid (split) apex translucent-scarious; 

 bristles several, extremely short and promptly deciduous; style 3-branched; 

 achenial body broadly obovoid-pyriform, turgid, obscurely trigonous, 0.9-1.2 mm. 

 long, ripening through yellow to golden-brown, surficially very minutely granu- 

 lar-roughened and obscurely reticulate; tubercle conic to essentially globular, 0.1 

 mm. long (rarely to 0.2 mm.), basally constricted. Probably conspecific with 

 E. compressa. 



In calcareous loamy (usually slightly moist) soil, in water of ponds and lake 

 margins, seepage areas, in Okla. {Waterfall) and on Tex. Edwards Plateau and 

 n.-cen. Tex., infrequent s. to s.e. Tex. (Refugio Co.) and in e. Plains Country, 

 spring. 



6. Bulbostylis Kunth 



Essentially glabrous perennial forming tight swards of limited extent or less 

 commonly annual herbs; culms closely tufted, 4-30 cm. long, 0.2-0.6 mm. thick, 

 wiry, erect; leaves setaceous, about half as high as and even thinner than the 

 culm; primary brach setaceous, often appearing as a continuation of the culm or 

 spreading, 3-22 mm. long; other bracts setaceous, much-reduced; inflorescence 

 umbelliform or cymose, simple or compound, 5-40 mm. long or occasionally re- 

 duced to a glomerule or even rarely a single spikelet; spikelets lance-cylindric, 

 dark-brown, of 7 to 25 perfect flowers; scales spirally imbricate, ovate, obtuse 

 to acute or rarely retuse, dark-brown, 1-2 mm. long, strongly keeled (the keel 

 paler), occasionally slightly gibbous, glabrous to strigose or puberulent, marginally 

 smooth to slightly fimbriate; perianth bristles absent; style 3-branched, the base 

 enlarged and persistent as a tubercle 0.5-1 mm. long, differentiated in texture 

 and color from the achenial body; achenial body obovoid or usually obpyramidal, 

 strongly triquetrous, 0.7-0.9 mm. long, maturing through shades of white to 

 pale-buffy-white or grayish, with papillae or transverse ridges. Stenophyllus Raf. 

 (a rejected name). Many authors, with much justification, include Bulbostylis in 

 Fimhristylis. 



About 100 species in warm regions. 



1. Achenes papillose, maturing yellowish or grayish; cyne typically compound 

 1. B. ciliatifolia. 



1. Achenes transversely ridged or rugose; cyme simple (2) 



2(1). Strong perennial; achene with about 20 minute but (under a lens!) con- 

 spicuous and pronounced transverse rugae on each face, maturing 

 to a grayish color 2. B. juncoides. 



2. Annual; achenes with about 10 indistinct transverse ridges on each face, 



maturing to a bufl'y-white (3) 



3(2). Spikelets 2 or more in each inflorescence, at the apex of the culms, not 

 sessile in axils of basal leaves; leave sheaths usually sparsely villous, 

 at least at the summit; achenes all alike 3. B. capillaris. 



3. Spikelets usually solitary at the apex of the culms and others sessile in axils 



of leaves; leaf sheaths glabrous; middle achenes of basal spikelets 

 larger than those of the culms 4. C. Funckii. 



1. Biilbosfylis ciliatifolia (Ell.) Fern. Fig. 206. 



Characters given in the generic description and the key. 



Uncommon in periodically wet sandy soil of open woods and hillsides in Okla. 



400 



