North American Cyperacece. 349 



Hab. Sandy banks of rivers, Massachusetts to Pennsyl- 

 vania, and west to Kentucky. Deerfield, Massachusetts, 

 Prof. Hitchcock and Vr. Coolcy! ; banks of the Connecticut, 

 near Middletown and ekewhere ! ; Northern parts of the State 

 of New York, Dr. M. Stevenson ! ; western parts of the same 

 State, Dr. Gray!; Lexington, Kentucky, Dr. Short! 



Obs. Nearly related to /. setacea of R. Brown and N. ah 

 Ese7ib. and /. squarrosa, Rxm. ^ Schult., (Scirpus squarrosus)^ 

 but is distinguished from both by its bifid (not 3-cleft) style, as 

 well as by other characters. It has much the habit and cha- 

 racters of Liiwcarpha maculate, except that it wants the inte- 

 rior scales, and Vahl long ago made a similar remark of hi& 

 Scirpus squarrosus,* now referred to Isolepis ; and Nees ab 

 Esenbeck seems to think that it may be a Lipocarpha with the 

 interior scales abortive. According to Vahl, the S. squarrosus 

 has the style 2-cleft, but N. ab Esenb. states distinctly that it is 

 3-cleft. 



2. Isolepis carinata, Hook. &f Am. 



Culm somewhat compressed, sulcate, setaceous, with a 

 single leaf near the base ; spike ovate, solitary, growing froni 

 the side of the culm near the summit, without an involucre, 

 few (6 — 8)-flowered; scales Ifoat-shaped, carinate, abruptly- 

 acuminate ; style 3-cleft ; nut short, acutely triangular, rough- 

 ened with papillae, 



I. carinata, Hook. 8f Am. Mss^t 



Culms cespitose, 3 — 4 inches high, smooth. Leaves setaceous, chan'- 

 nelled, half the length of the calm, sheathed at the base. Spike rather 

 obtuse, few-flowered, situated about half an inch below the summit of 

 the culm. Scales remarkably concave and gibbous, with several curved 

 narrow wrinkles on each side towards the keel. Stamens 2 ? Style short,. 



* " Facies Htp^ltpti, sed deficiunt corolla et tubercula." Vahlr 

 enum. 2. p. 259. Vahl, whose Hypselyptum included the modern 

 Lipocarpha, was incorrect, however, in stating that the nut, in his genuSr 

 is furnished Avith a tubercle. 



