CYPERACEM. (SEDGE FAMILY.) 533 
nials, with grass-like leaves. Spikes from the axils of scale-like or leaf-like bracts, 
simple or compound. 
LI 
$1. VIGNEA. Stigmas two: nut lenticular, or more or less compressed. 
A. Spikes bearing both sterile and fertile flowers. $ 
* Spikes with the sterile and fertile flowers variously disposed. 
1. C. bromoides, Schk. Spikes 4-6, distinct, oblong-lanceolate, com- 
pressed ; perigynia lanceolate, erect, finely nerved, ending in a long flat rough- 
margined 2-cleft beak, longer than the ovate-lanceolate mucronate scale. — 
Swamps and bogs, Florida, and northward. March and April. — Culms tufted, 
weak and slender, 1° — 13? high. Leaves narrowly linear. Spikes occasionally 
wholly sterile or fertile. Perigynia somewhat 2-ranked. 
‘ * * Spikes with the upper flowers sterile, the lower fertile. 
+ Spikes indefinite, disposed in a close panicle. 
++ Perigynia sessile. 
2. C, decomposita, Muhl. Panicle long, drooping, the upper spike-like 
branches densely clustered, the lower elongated, distinct, and spreading ; perigy- 
nia obovate, biconvex, nerved, abruptly short-beaked, about the length of the 
ovate pointed white-margined scale.— Wet margins of ponds and streams, 
Florida, and northward. May.— Culms erect, stout, 2°-3° high. Panicle 
4'-6/long. Bracts of the wowor spikes bristle-form.. Perigynis dark brown as 
maturity. 
3. C. vulpinoidea, Michx. Panicle spike-like, erect; clusters of spikes 
8-12, short, oval, the upper ones densely crowded; perigynia small, ovate, 
compressed, short-beaked, 2-cleft at the orifice, faintly nerved at the broad base; 
scales yellowish, mucronate. (C. multiflora, Muhl.) — Swamps, South Caro- 
lina, and northward. May.— Culms 1}°-2° high. Panicle 2/3! long, cylin- 
drical. Bracts of the lower spikes setaceous or leaf-like, often exceeding the 
panicle. Perigynia yellowish at maturity. 
++ ++ Perigynia short-stalked, truncate at the base. 
4. C. crus-corvi, Shuttleworth. Panicle very large, the lower branches 
long and distinct, the upper short and crowded ; perigynia plano-convex, ovate, 
strongly nerved, dilated at the base, tapering into a long and slender rough-edged 
deeply 2-cleft beak, thrice the length of the ovate mucronate scale. — River- 
swamps, West Florida, and westward. May. — Culms thick and spongy, sharp- 
angled, and, like the broad (}/- $' wide) leaves, glaucous. Panicle 4!— 9/ long, 
oblong or spike-like. Perigynia widely spreading, brown at maturity. 
5. C. stipata, Muhl. Panicle oblong; the short ovate branches densely 
clustered ; perigynia ovate-lanceolate, strongly nerved, tapering into a stout 
rough-edged erect-spreading 2-cleft beak, 2-3 times the length of the scale. — 
Swamps, Florida to Mississippi, and northward. April and May.— Plant yel- 
lowish, ans 1? - 2° high, meee! thick and | spongy. ae" 
ae 45 * 
