529 
CYPERACEJE. (SEDGE FAMILY.) 
like usually white tuft in fruit. Stamens chiefly 3. Style (3- 
cleft) and achenium as in Scirpus. Perennials. (Name from 
epiov, wool or cotton , and <f>opd, bearing.) 
* Bristles or hairs of the perianth only 6, crisped: spike single. 
1. E. a I pill ll ill, L. Culms slender, many in a row from a 
running rootstock (6'-10' high), scabrous, naked, terminated by a sin¬ 
gle small ovate spike; sheaths at the base tipped with a short awl- 
shaped leaf. — Cold peat-bogs, N. New England, New York, and far 
northward. May, June. 
* * Bristles of the perianth very numerous and long , not crisped, form¬ 
ing dense cotton-like heads in fruit. 
— Culm bearing a single spike: involucre none. 
2. E. vagi list turn, L. Culms in close tufls (1° high), leafy 
only at the base, furnished with 2 inflated leafless sheaths; root-leaves 
long and thread-form, triangular-channelled; scales of the ovate spike 
long-pointed, lead-color at maturity. — Cold and high peat-bogs, N. 
England to Wisconsin northward, rare. June. — Wool silvery- 
white, 1' long. 
■*“ Culm leafy, bearing several umbellate-clustered heads , involucrate. 
3. E. Virginicnm, L. Culm rigid (2°-4° high); leaves 
narrowly linear, elongated, flat; spikes crowded in a dense cluster or 
head ; wool rusty-color, only thrice the length of the scale ; stamen 
1. — Bogs and low meadows, common. July, Aug. — All the others 
bear bright white wool. 
4. E. polysfcicYiyon, L. Culm rigid (1°-2° high), obscure¬ 
ly triangular; leaves linear, flat, or barely channelled below, triangular 
at the point; involucre 2 - 3-leaved; spikes several (4-12), on nod¬ 
ding peduncles, some of them elongated in fruit; achenium obovate 
(wool straight, 1' long or more). — Var. 1. angustifolium (E. angus- 
tifolium, Roth, and European botanists, not of American, and the 
original E. polystach. of L .) has smooth peduncles. — Var. 2. latif6- 
lium (E. latifolium, Hoppe. E. polystach., Torr., fyc.) has rough pe¬ 
duncles, and sometimes broader and flatter leaves. — Both are com¬ 
mon in bogs throughout the Northern States, and often with the pe¬ 
duncles obscurely scabrous, indicating that the species should be left 
as Linnaeus founded it. June, ripe in August. 
5. E. gracile, Koch. Culm slender (l 6 -2° high), rather tri¬ 
angular; leaves slender , channelled-triangular, rough on the angles; 
involucre short and scale-like, mostly 1-leaved; peduncles rough or 
roughish-pubescent; achenium elliptical-linear. (E.triquetrum, Hoppe. 
E. angustifolium, Torr., not of Roth , —Cold bogs, New England 
to Wisconsin, common northward. July, Aug. — Spikes 3-7, small, 
when mature the copious white wool b! t0 l° n §>* 
45 
