North Amerlca/i, Cyperacece. 349 



Hab. Sandy banks of rivers, Massachusetts to Pennsyl- 

 vania, and west to Kentucky. Deerfield, Massachusetts, 

 Prof. Hitchcoclc and Dr. Coolcy ! ; banks of the Connecticut, 

 near Middletown and elsewhere ! ; 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 /. sctacea of jR. Brown and N. ah 

 Escnb. and /. squarrosa, Ram. ^'Schult., (Scirpus squarrosus), 

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

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

 racters o^ Lipocarpha macidata, except that it wants the inte- 

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

 Scirpus squari-osus,* 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. sqnarrosus 

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

 3-cleft. 



2. Isolepis carinata. Hook. Sf Am. 



Culm somewhat compressed, sulcate, setaceous, with a 

 single leaf near the base ; spike ovate, solitary, growing fi-om 

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

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

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

 ened with papillae. 



I. carinata, Hool: c^ Am. Mss.! 



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

 Belled, half the length of the culm, slieatbed at the base. Spike rather 

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

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

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



* " Facies Hyp^lypti,. 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 genus, 

 B& furnished with a tubercle. 



