North American Cyperacea. 293 



Obs. I have specimens of this plant which were sent to me 

 by Mr. Elliott, but the inflorescence is not sufficiently advanced 

 for comparing it with the preceding species and varieties. It 

 appears, however, to be almost identical with my variety /3. 



3. FUIRENA SCIRPOIDEA, MicJl. 



Rhizoma creeping ; culm furnished with leafless, subinflated, 

 mucronate sheaths ; spikes (1 — 6,) ovate, terminal ; scales 

 ovate, with a short appressed mucro ; bristles slender, scabrous, 

 longer than the claAvs of the ovate, somewhat obtuse petals. 



Fuirena scirpoidea, Michx.! Jl. 1. p. 38. t. 7; Elliott, sk. 1. p. 54; 

 Muhl.! gram. p. 51: Fahl, enum. p. 387; Rczm. 8f Schult. 2. p. 235; 

 Spreng. syst. 1. p. 237. 



Vaginaria Richardi, Pers. syn. 1. p. 70 ; Pursh, Jl. p. 58, Nutt. gen. 

 1. p. 37. 



Rhizoma creeping, scaly. Cubn a foot and a half high, smooth and sub- 

 terete swollen at the joints. Sheaths remote, never bearing leaves, but 

 merely a short subulate point. Spikes all terminal, often solitary, but some- 

 times as many as six, 4 — 5 lines long, pubescent. Scales 3-nerved, the 

 nerves confluent at the summit, and terminating in a short straight point. 

 Bristles straight, retrorsely scabrous. Petals with the claw longer than 

 the lamina, 3-ner\'ed, purplish, thin and subdiaphanous except near the 

 summit, which is cellular and tumid. Stamens 3, filaments much 

 longer than the petals. Style compressed, dilated irpward, 3-parted, 

 the divisions glandular-pubescent. Nut acutely triangular, whitish, 

 stipitate, acuminated with the remains of the style. 



Hab. Swamps which are dry in summer. Florida, Mi- 

 ckaux! ; Georgia, Dr. Baldwiri! ^' Le Conte .' ; New Orleans, 

 Dr. Ingalls! 



Obs. This interesting plant, as Michaux remarks, has the 

 characters of a Fuirena, but its habit is different from that of 

 the other species. In the structure of the flowers, it agrees 

 minutely with jP. squarrosa, especially the variety which I have 

 called aristulata (s.) In one instance, I found the style 3-cIeft 

 with one of the divisions again 3-parted. 



