324 



NATURAL HISTORY BULLETIN. 



i. E. atropurpurea (Retz.) Kunth. Enum. ii, 151 (1837). 



Illus. Flora, i, 250, fig. 582; Webber, App. Fl. Neb., 24; Dr. Britton in Torr. 

 Bull, xviii, 166. 



A widely distributed species of the southern United States 

 and tropical America. 



Found growing in wet sand at Fruitland, Muscatine county, 

 by Mr. Reppert. The plant is about iy 2 inches high, the 

 culms wiry, the spikes ovoid, 1 ]/ 2 lines long by 1 line wide. 

 It resembles the eastern E. olivacea Torr. but grows from an 

 annual root. Probably very rare within our limits; not before 

 reported from Iowa. Mr. Wm. D. Barnes who communicated 

 the plant to me cites this as a probable example of a southern 

 plant brought to us by the agency of migratory water-fowl 

 which resort to that locality in great numbers. 



2. E. ovata [Roth.) R. & S. Syst.,11, 152 (1817). 



E. obtusa Schultes, Mont., n, 89 (1824). 

 Illus. Flora, 1, 251, fig. 584; Gray's Man., 6th ed., 574; Arthur, Cont. Fl. 

 Iowa, iv; MacMillan, Metas. Minn. Val., 102; Tracy, Fl. Mo., 91; Bren- 

 del, Fl. Peoriana, 61; Bruhin, Fl. Wis., 278; Webber, Fl. Neb., 99; 

 Fink, Iowa Acad. Sci., IV, 105. 



Wet soil, southern and eastern portions of the state. Very 

 variable in regard to height, and size of the spikes. 



Ames and Iowa City, Hitchcock; Kellogg, 1877, collector 

 unknown; Keokuk, Hitchcock; Fayette county, 1894, Rink; 

 Moscow, 1894, Barnes & Miller; Appanoose county, July, 

 1896, and Decatur county, Aug., 1898, Fitzpatrick ; Grinnell, 

 June, 1894, Johnson; Peru, July 20, 1897, No. 393, Hollings- 

 ivorth ; Birmingham, Aug. 15, 1897, Baldwin. 



Note. — E. engelmanui Steud., Syn. PI. Cyp., 79 (1S55;, (E. obtusa var. de- 

 tonsa Gray) has been collected on the Mississippi bottoms at Oquawka, 111., 

 bv Mr. II. N. Patterson, and probably occurs in the southeastern part of 

 the state. It is also reported from Kansas by Smythe. 



3. E. palustris (L.) R. & S. Syst., n, 151 (1817). 



Scirpus palustris L. Sp. PI. 47 (1753). 

 Illus. Flora, 1, 251, fig. 586; Gray's Man., 6th ed., 575; Arthur, Fl. Iowa, 33; 

 Hitchcock, PI. Ames, 523; MacMillan, Metas. Minn. Val., 101 ; Tracy, 

 Fl. Mo., 91; Bessey, Cont. Fl. Iowa, 123; Brendel, Fl. Peoriana, 61; 

 Wheeler, Fl. Milwaukee Co., Wis., 186; Webber, Fl. Neb., 99; Rydberg, 

 Fl. Black Hills, S. D., 527; Fink, Iowa Acad. Sci., iv, 105. 



