SEDGE FAMILY 



201 



8. S. validus Vahl. Great Bulrush. Stems 3 to 8 feet high from stout 

 scaly rootstoeks; basal sheaths soft, the hyaline margins soon lacerate; spikelets 

 narrow-ovate, in clusters of 1 to 5, borne on the rays of a lax pauiele ; scales 

 equaling or but little longer than the achene, roundish, ciliate, mucronate ; bristles 

 4 or usually 5 or 6, retrorsely barbed, shorter than or usually slightly longer than 

 the achene ; style 2-cleft ; achene broadly obovoid, plano-convex, apiculate. 



Widely distributed in North America. Little known in California. 



Locs. — Oro Fino, Butter 137; Russian River, s. Mendocino Co., Heller 5827 (det. C. V. 

 Piper); Chinatown firth, Santa Ana River, F. M. Seed (ace. Agnes Cliase). Probably over- 

 looked elsewhere in California. 



Refs.— SciKPUS VALIDUS Vahl, Euum. PI. 2:268 (1806), type from the West Indies. S. 

 lacustris of Am. authors. 



9. S. americanus Pers. Three Square. (Fig. 20.) 

 StenLS % to 2 feet high, very slender, triangular, some- 

 what leafy; leaves short (the blade 1 to 3 inches long) ; 

 involueral bract solitary, pungent, 1 to 4 inches long; 

 spikelets 1 to 6, oblong-ovate, 3 to 7 lines long, borne 

 in a single crowded sessile cluster; scales dark-brown, 

 usually coiLspicuousty tipped with a stout pale-colored 

 awn about a line long; achene flat on one face, convex 

 on the other and somewhat obscurely keeled; bristles 

 2 to 6, verj- unequal, the longer about as long as the 

 achene. 



Marshy, often brackisli, places, occasional throughout 

 California. North America, Chile. 



Locs. — Panamint Caiion, Hall ^ Chandler 70il ; Owens Lake, 

 Jeyson 5115; Mt. Pinos, Ball 6627; Eureka, Tracy 1765; Castle 

 Rock, Sacramento River, Goldsmith 7; Honey Lake Valley, Davy 

 3286; Long Valley, Lassen Co., Jepson 7785. 



Refs. — SciRPUS AMEMC.\NUS Pors. Syn. 1:68 (1805), type from 

 the Carolinas. S. pungens Vahl, Enum. PI. 2:255 (1806). 



Fig. 20. SciRPUs ameri- 

 canus Pers. a, clus- 

 ter of spikelets, X 1 ; 

 ft, scale, X 5; c, 

 achene and bristles, 

 X5. 



10. S. olneyi Gray. Olney Bulrush. (Pig. 21.) Stems from the bulbous 

 nodes of running rootstoeks, 2 to 5 feet high or more, stout, triquetrous, sheathed 



at ba.se, leafless or with a single very short leaf ; 

 involueral bract 1 to I14 inches long ; spikelets 2 

 to 26 in a single crowded sessile cluster, oblong- 

 ovate, 2 to 5 lines long; scales brovm, elliptic, 

 membranous, obtuse, glabrous or slightly ciliate ; 

 style 2-cleft ; achene obovate, flattish on one side, 

 convexish on the other, beaked, smooth. 



Common in brackish mar.shes : California and 

 (Oregon, east to the Atlantic. 



Locs. — Klamath Hot Sprs., Goldsmith 23 ; Suisun, 

 C. F. Baker 3243; Newark, Davy 1109; Death Valley, 

 Jepson 6939. 



Fig. 21. SciKPUs OLNEYI Gray, 

 a, cluster of spikelets, X 1 ; ft, 

 scale (lower), X 5; c, scale 

 from a different plant (upper), 

 X 5 ; d, achene and bristles, 

 X 5. 



Refs. — SciRPUS OLNEYI Gray, Jour. Bost. Soe. Nat. 

 Hist. 5:30 (1845), tj-pe loc. Seekonk River, R. I., Olney; 

 Jepson, Fl. W. Mid. Cal. 87 (1901). 



11. S. campestris Britton. Bull Tule. (Fig. 22.) Stems 1 to 3 feet high, 

 stout, acutely triangular, the point of junction with the slender rootstoek often 



