GRASS FAMILY 



255 



1. Hystrix californica (Boland.) Kiintze. 



California Bottle-brush. 



Fig. 607. 



Cymnostichitm californiciim Boland.; Tluirb. in S. Wats. Bot. 

 " Calif. 2: 327. 1880. 



Hystrix- caiifoniica Kiintze, Rev. Gen. PI. 778. 1891. 

 Asprella californica Beal, Grasses N. Am. 2: 657. 1896. 



Culms stout, 1-2 meters tall ; sheaths hispid or 

 the upper smooth ; blades flat, as much as 2 cm. 

 wide, scabrous ; spike stout, dense and somewhat 

 nodding above, more or less interrupted below, 12- 

 25 cm. long ; spikelets mostly in pairs, 1-3-flowered, 

 on short callus-like pedicels; glumes wanting; lem- 

 mas 12-15 mm. long. 5-nerved above, the nerves, 

 especially the marginal ciliate-hispid with short stiff 

 hairs ; awn stout, straight, rough, about 2 cm. long. 



Woods and shaded banks, near the coast, Marin County 

 to Santa Cruz County, California. Tune-Aug. Type lo- 

 cality : San Francisco. 



Family 11. CYPERACEAE.* 



Sedge Family. 

 Grass-like or rtish-like herbs. Stems (culms) slender, solid (rarely hollow), 

 triangular, quadrangular, terete or flattened. Roots fibrous (many species peren- 

 nial by long rootstocks ). Leaves narrow, with closed sheaths. Flowers perfect or 

 imperfect, arranged in spikelets. 1 (rarely 2) in the axil of each scale (glume, 

 bract), the spikelets solitary or clustered, one- to many-flowered. Scales 2-ranked 

 or spirally imbricated, persistent or deciduous. Perianth hypogynous, composed 

 of bristles, or interior scales, rarely calyx-like, or entirely wanting. Stamens 1-3. 

 rarely more. Filaments slender or filiform. Anthers 2-celled. Ovary 1 -celled. 

 Ovule 1. anatropous, erect. Style 2-3-cleft or rarely simple or minutely 2-toothed. 

 Fruit a lenticular, plano-convex, or trigonous achene. Endosperm mealv. Embryo 

 minute. 



About 63 genera and 3000 species, of very wide geographic distribution. 



Fertile flowers perfect. 



Basal empty scales of the spikelets none, or not more than 2 (except in E 

 Scales of the spikelets 2-ranked; bristles none. 

 Scales of the spikelets spirally imbricated. 



Base of the style persistent as a tubercle on the achene. 

 Spikelet 1; culms leafless; bristles usually present. 

 Spikelets mostly several or numerous; culms leaf-bearing; bristles 



Base of the style not persistent as a tubercle. 

 Flowers without any inner scales. 



Base of the style swollen; bristles none. 

 Base of the style not swollen; bristles usually present. 

 Bristles many, much elongated. 

 Bristles few, short. 

 Flowers with a minute inner scale. 

 Basal emptv scales of the spikelets 3 or more. 

 Style 2-cleft. 



Spikelets breaking up into l-fruited joints; scales 2-ranked. 

 Rachis of the spikelets not jointed; scales spirally imbricated. 

 Style 3cleft. 



Bristles none. 

 Bristles present. 

 All the flowers imperfect. 



Pistillate flower partly enwrapped by a scale. 

 Pistillate flower enclosed by a perigynium. 



1. CYPERUS L. Sp. PI. 44. 1753. 



Annual or perennial sedges. Culms in our species simple, triangular, leafy near the base, 

 and with 1 or more leaves at the summit forming an involucre to the simple or compound, 

 umbellate or capitate inflorescence. Rays of the umbel sheathed at the base, usually very 

 unequal, one or more of the heads or spikes commonly sessile. Spikelets flat or subterete, the 

 scales falling away from the rachis as they mature, or persistent and the spikelets falling 

 away from the axis of the head or spike with the scales attached. Scales concave, condupli- 



* Text contributed, except for the genus Ccirc.v. Iiy N.\th.\niel Lord Brittox. 



