S'SO North American C]jperacecs, 



Cypenis Michauxianus, toros^is, iiennatiis, &c. This profound 

 botanist remarks, that Mariscus differs from Cyperus only in its 

 few-flowered spikelet, but he does not seem inclined to unite the 

 two genera.* Nees has more recentlyt endeavoured to cha- 

 racterize Mariscus by the deciduous spikelet, separadng at a 

 kind of articulation, immediately above the two lowest scales, 

 which remaining attached to the rachis, give it a chaffy appear- 

 ance4 But the same kind of separation takes place in C» 

 strigosus, and probably in many other species. 



§ 3. Interior scales herbaceous, free. — ^Papyrus. 



33. Cyperus erythrorhizos, Muhl. 



Umbel compound, many-rayed; involucre 4 — 5-leaved, very 

 long ; involucels setaceous, shorter than the partial rays ; 

 spikes cyhndrical-oblong, nearly sessile ; spikelets very nume- 

 rous, spreading horizontally, terete-compressed, many-flowered; 

 scales lanceolate, mucronate ; interior scales lanceolate, acute, 

 free their whola length- 



G-erythrorhizos, Muhl.! gram. p. 20; Schult. mant. 2. p. 120. 



C. tenuiflorus, Elliott, sk. 1. p. 70. (not of Rotth.) 



Culm 2 — 3 feet high, obtusely triangular, very smooth. Leaves shorter 

 than the culm, 2 — 4 lines wide. Umbel about 7-rayed ; the rays 3 — 4 inches 

 long, each bearing 3 — 4 partial rays, which are crowded with spikelets 

 nearly their whole length. Ochrece obliquely truncate, entire. Involucre 

 three times as long as the umbel. Spikelets half an inch long, linear, 

 10 — 18-flowered. ^'caZes closely imbricated, chestnut-coloured, shining^ 

 without nerves. Interior scales cuspidate, one third the length of the 



* "Limites itaque inter Cyperum, Mariscum et Kyllingam omnino 

 artificiales, at genera minime conjungenda sint." R. Brown, prodr. I. c^ 



f Synops. gen. Cyp. in Linncea, vol. 9, and in Wight's contrih. pp. 

 69 and 89. 



X " Differt a Cypero spiculis a squamis inferioribus articulo solubilibus, 

 rachi residua post lapsum spicularum quasi paleacea remanente." iV. 

 obE. 



