Sedge Family 67 



ceeding the stem, rough-margined, those of the involucre 3-7, 

 the longer much exceeding the umbel ; umbel mostly compound ; 

 spikelets linear, subacute, 6-20 mm. long, less than 2 mm. wide, 

 many- dowered, clustered in oblong nearly or quite sessile spikes ; 

 scales chestnut brown, oblong-lanceolate, mucronulate; rachis 

 with membranous wings separating as a pair of hyaline interior 

 scales; stamens 3; style 3-cleft; achene sharply 3-angled, oblong, 

 pointed at both ends, pale, half as long as the scale. 



Reported from Oak Knoll, near Pasadena, and Baldwin's Ranch by 

 McC'latchie. 



2. SCIRPUS L. Bulrush. 



Annual or perennial often rush-like sedges with leafy 

 stems or the leaves reduced to basal sheaths. Spikelets 

 terete or somewhat flattened, solitary, capitate, spicate or 

 umbellate, usually subtended by a 1-several-leaved in- 

 volucre. Scales spirally imbricated, usually all fertile 

 or the lowest sometimes empty. Flowers perfect. Peri- 

 anth of 1-6 bristles or sometimes wanting. Stamens 2-3. 

 Styles 2-3-cleft, not swollen at the base, wholly decid- 

 uous from the achene or its base persistent as a subulate 

 tip. Achene triangular, lenticular or plano-convex. 



* Roots fibrous. 



1. S. cernuus Vahl. Stems tufted from fibrous roots, slender, 

 5-20 cm. high, sheathed at base; upper sheath bearing a short 

 slender leaf; involucral bract slender, 2-20 mm. long; spikelet 

 solitary, ovate to oblong-ovate, 3-5 mm. long; scales brownish 

 with a pale midvein, concave; bristles none; style 3-cleft; achene 

 3-angled-obovoid, the sides convex, smooth or somewhat granular, 

 dark brown, scarcely 1 mm. long. (S. riparius Spreng.) 



Occasional on river bottoms about Los Angeles and Santa Barbara. Re- 

 sembling E< aris in habit. 



** Perennials from rootstocks. 



*■ Inflorescence apparently lateral. 



2. S. Americanus Pers. Perennial by long rootstocks ; stems 

 sharply 3-angled, with concave sides, erect, 3-12 dm. high ; leaves 



