CYPERACEiE. (sedge FAMILY.) 681 



ish ; scales ovate, strongly keeled, mucrouate-pointed ; stamens 2 or 3 : style 

 2-cleft ; bristles none ; achene obovate-orbicular, mucronate, plano-convex, strongly 

 \crinkled transversely, — Wet shores. 111. to Tex. ; also found in E. Mass. 

 {Ilitchings). (Eu.) 



* * * Spikelets in simple or mostly compound umbellate or cymose-panicled 

 clusters, many-Jiowered, terete ; involucre of mostly several flat leaves ; culm 

 tall, from tufted or running r oot stocks, triangular y leaf y , sedge-like ; leaves 

 rough on the margin ; style mostly 3-cleft. 



.' Spikelets large (6-15'' long) ; midrib of the scales extended beyond the mostly 

 lacerate or two-cleft apex into a distinct awn. 



13 S. maritimus, L. (Sea Club-Rush.) Leaves flat, linear, as long 

 as the stout culm (1-3° high), those of the involucre 1-4, very unequal; 

 spikelets few - several in a sessile cluster, and often also with 1-4 unequal 

 rays bearing 1-7 ovate or oblong-cyliudrical (rusty-brown) spikelets; awns 

 of the scales soon recurved; achene obovate-orbicular, compressed, flat on one 

 side, convex or obtuse-angled on the other, minutely pointed, shining, shorter than 

 the 1-6 unequal and deciduous (sometimes obsolete) bristles. — Saline locali- 

 ties, on the coast from N. Scotia to Fla., and in the interior across the conti- 

 nent. (Eu.) — Var. macrostachyos, Michx. ; larger, with very thick oblong- 

 cylindrical heads (1 - 1^' long), and longer iuvolucral leaf (often 1° long). 



14. S. fluviatilis, Gray. (River C.) Culm very stout, 3-5° high; 

 leaves flat, broadly linear (^' wide or more), tapering gradually to a point, 

 the upper and those of the very long involucre very much exceeding the com- 

 pound umbel; rays 5-9, elongated, recurved-spreading, each bearing 1-5 

 ovate or oblong-cylindrical acute paler heads; scales less lacerate and awns 

 less recurved; achene obovate, sharply and exactly triangidar, conspicuously 

 pointed, opaque, scarcely equalling the 6 rigid bristles. — Borders of lakes and 

 large streams, W. Vt. to Conn, and Penn., west to Minn, and Iowa. 



-»- ■*- Spikelets very numerous, small (1 - 3" long) ; scales mucronate-pointed or 

 blunt; umbel-like cymose panicle irregular, compound or decompound ; culm 

 2-5° high, unusually leafy ; leaves broadly linear, green and rather soft : 

 bristles very slender, often more or less tortuous and naked below. 



15. S. sylvaticus, L. Spikelets lead-colored, clustered 3 -\0 together at 

 the end of the mostly slender ultimate divisions of the open decompound panicle, 

 ovoid or lance-ovate, 2" loog; scales bluntish ; bristles 6, downwardly barbed 

 throughout, rather exceeding the triangular short-pointed achene ; style 3-cleft. 

 — Along brooks, E. Mass. to N. Y. and E. Penn. 



Var. digynus, Boeckl. Style 2-cleft and the achene not at all angled on 

 che back ; stamens 2, and bristles 4. (S. microcarpus, Presl.) — N. Scotia and 

 N. Eng. to Minn., and westward. 



16. S. atrovirens, Muhl. Leaves somewhat more Tigid; spikelets dull 

 greenish-brown, densely conglomerate (10 -30 together) into close heads, these also 

 usually densely clustered in a less compound panicle ; scales pointed ; bristles 

 sparsely and strongly dowmvardly barbed above the middle, naked below, nearly 

 straight, as long as the conspicuously pointed and obovate-oblong triangulai 

 achene. — Wet meadows and bogs, N. Scotia and N. Eng., wesx; to Minn., KaiL 

 and the Pacific 



