284 North American Cyperacea. 



Root fibrous. Cubn tumid at the base, 2—3 feet high, nearly leafless, 

 pubescent, obtusely triangular, the sides very convex. Leaves mostly 

 radical, half the length of the culm, 3 — 4 lines wide, flat, pubescent and 

 somewhat glaucous. Rays 6 — 10, unequal, somewhat terete, 2 — 6 inches 

 long. Oclireee bicuspidate. Involucre many-leaved ; 3 of the leaves 

 broader and longer than the others, all of them generally shorter than 

 the umbel. Heads nearly an inch long, and half an inch in diameter, 

 very obtuse, obovate, or rather turbinate, the base acute. Spikelets very 

 slender, and numerous, (about 100) ; uppermost ones spreading horizon- 

 tally, the rest bent backwards against the peduncle. Scales generally 5 

 in each spikelet, striate ; the two lowest (calyx, Vahl,) short, ovate, empty; 

 the fourth lanceolate, fertile ; the uppermost one subulate. Style 3-cleft. 

 Nut linear, triquetrous, minutely papillose. 



Hab. Sandy soils, and sometimes in wet places; New 

 York to Florida. In the pine barrens of New J ersey ! ; not 

 common; Pennsylvania, Muhlenberg!; North Carolina, Mr. 

 Curtis!; South Carolina, and Georgia, Elliott, Dr. Baldwin!; 

 Middle Florida, Dr. Chajman!; Alabama, Dr. Gates!; Ar- 

 kansas, Nuttall. 



Obs. The spikelets, in their earhest state are merely 

 spreading, bnt immediately after flowering they bend back- 

 ward and are appressed to the common rachis, as in M. umbel- 

 latus of the East Indies. 



KYLLINGIA, Rottb. 



Spikelets compressed, the scales distichously imbricated, 



usually bearing but one fertile flower. Scales generally 



4; the 2 lowest short and empty (rarely wanting), the others 



larger, for the most part only the lower one fertile. Stamens 



1 3, Style elongated, 2-cleft. Nut lenticular. — Culms 



triano-ular; spikelets collected in roundish sessile heads, which 

 are solitary or aggregated ; involucrum mostly 3-leaved, folia- 



ceous. 



Kyllingia, Linn.; Lam. ill. t. 38 ; Juss. gen. p. 27 ; Nutt. 

 gen. 1. p. 30; R. Brown, p-odr. 1. p. 218; Rcem. ^ Schult. 

 gen. 188 ; Kunth, syn. 1. p. 143 ; N. ab Esenb. in Wight's 

 contrib. p. 69, and in Linnaa. 9. p. 286. 



