long. R. cymosa of many auth., not (Willd.) Ell., R. glohularis var. recognita 

 Gale, R. obliterala Gale. 



Moist sandy soil, bogs, seepage areas, ditches, wet coastal savannah-prairie, 

 in Okla. (McCurtain, Sequoyah and Pushmataha cos.), frequent in e. Tex., 

 infrequent in s.e. Tex. and rare inland to n.-cen. Tex., late spring-summer; wide- 

 spread in s.e. U.S., n. to N.J., Tenn. and Mo., w. to Okla. and Tex.; also Calif., 

 W.I. and C.A. 



14. Psilocarya Torr. Bald Rush 



An American and Australian genus of about 6 species, included by several 

 workers in Rhynchospora. 



1. Psilocarya nitens (Vahl) Wood. Fig. 254. 



Said to be annual but occasionally with weak short rhizomes and often rooting 

 from the lower nodes; culms few, erect, soft, 3-8 dm. long, 1-4 mm. thick, usually 

 with 1 to 3 weakly exserted ascending branches in the middle part; leaves crowded 

 in lower half of culm, with long acute ascending blades; main panicle lax, terminal 

 on main stem, smaller panicles terminating the branches; bracts several, attached 

 at close intervals along the panicle axis, shorter than the inflorescence; inflorescence 

 axis about 1 cm. long, with several unequal divergent mostly naked branches 

 bearing racemes of spikelets; spikelets 5-9 mm. long, narrowly ovoid, acute; 

 scales numerous, spirally attached, strongly imbricate, brown, ovate, acute, all 

 fertile; perianth absent; style branches 2; base of style becoming indurated and 

 persistent on the achene as a low grayish tubercle almost as broad as the achene 

 itself (but not as thick); achene plumply biconvex, Rhynchospora-\\k&, strongly 

 transversely wrinkled. 



Infrequent or rare, usually in marshy places, in mud at edge of water and on 

 vegetation mats in lakes, in s.e. Tex. (Hardin, Houston and Madison to Aransas 

 COS.); coastwise, Mass. to Tex.; local in n.w. Ind. 



15. Scleria Berg. Stone-rush. Nut-rush 

 About 200 species, mostly tropical and subtropical. 

 1. Scleria Muhlenbergii Steud. Fig. 207. 



Annual with fibrous roots or perennial with very short rhizomes; culms 15-80 

 cm. long. 1-1.6 mm. thick, trigonous or somewhat compressed, tufted, weak and 

 diffuse; sheaths sometimes somewhat winged; blades 15-25 cm. long, 1-4 (-8) 

 mm. broad, flat, often with cartilaginous margins, sometimes scabrous marginally 

 and on the nerves beneath; inflorescence terminal and axillary (the lateral ones 

 very remote, on long setaceous-filiform compressed often recurved or drooping 

 peduncles), loosely flowered, the clusters 1-3 cm. long; spikelets 2-4 mm. long; 

 hypogynium deeply 3-lobed, the lobes ovate-lanceolate, subacute, appressed; 

 achene 2 mm. long, more or less reticulate, the transverse ridges pilose, sordid- 

 white, globose-elliptic, umbonate, the ridges somewhat spirally disposed. S. setacea 

 of many auth., non Poir. 



Moist sand, about lakes, edge of water, pitcher plant bogs, pineland bogs, and 

 seepage slopes, infrequent in e. Tex. (Angelina, Tyler and Henderson cos.), rare 

 in n. part of Rio Grande Plains (Guadalupe Co.); N.Y. to Ind. and s. to Gulf 

 States; W.I., Mex., C.A., s. to Braz. and Bol. 



16. Carex L. Sedge. Caric-sedge 



Perennials with well-developed leaves, mostly monoecious; inflorescence of 

 several to many more or less spikelike spikelets emerging singly from the axils 

 of the upper leaves (herein called bracts) (in C leptalea the spikelet solitary), in 

 some species the spikelets so numerous and crowded and the bracts so reduced 



489 



