312 North American CyjpeTaceas, 



<§.. 7. Spike eonrpressed, often somewhat distichous; scales 

 membranaceous, hristles sle?ider, nut triangular ; style three- 

 cleft. C YPE ROSCIRPUS . 



17, Eleocharis microcarpa. 



Culm capillary, quadrangular, with three of the sides chan- 

 nelled; spikes oblong, compressed, (often proliferoos) 10 — 20- 

 flowered ; scales broadly ovate, rather acute^ somewhat cari- 

 nate, the lowest one much the largest ; bristles 3 — 5, shorter 

 than the nut, slender;, fragile ; nut minute, obovate, obtusely 

 triangular, smooth ; tubercle very minute, closely sessile. 



Cubits 6 — 8 inches long, a little tliicker than a human hair. Spikes- 

 nearly 2 lines long^ frequently proliferous; the axil of one or more of the 

 lowest scales bearing a pedunculate spikclct. Scales rather loose j some- 

 what acuminate but scarcely acirte, all of tliem dbciduous, except the 

 lowest one, which may be regarded as a bract or reduced one-leaved in- 

 volucre; margin whitish ; the sides brownish-red. ^nsiZes very slender, 

 closely appressed to the sides of the nut, and not half its length. Stamens' 

 3. Nut scarcely one-third of a line long, grayish white, very smooth.- 

 Tubercle triangular, apiculate, scarcely free round the base. 



Hab. Wet places. N eQ.v Ovle^ns, Ih'.Ingallsf 



Obs. The species of this section resemble in their compres- 

 sed and somewhat distichous spikes the genus Chaetocyperus, 

 but in other respects they have all the characters of Eleocharis^ 

 In some of the spikes of the present species, the axil of the 

 lower scales bears a slender peduncle instead c^ a flower, sup- 

 porting a spike at its summit, as in Climtocyperus Baldwinii^ 



f3 ? Jiliculmis. Culms cespitose, capillary or filiform, quad- 

 rangular, wiry ; spikes oblong ; bristles nearly as long as the 

 nut without the tubercle ; nut obovate-oblong. 



Culms 3 — 4 inches high. Spikes more than^ two lines long. Scales- 

 dark chestnut-coloured. 



Hae. Wet places in the pine barrens of New Jersey. 



