North American Cyperacerj:. 375 



Tribe VL SCLERIEtE. 



Flowers diclinous. Fertile spikelets 1-flowered. 

 Scales fasciculate ; the lower ones empty. Nut with a 

 thick bony shell, naked, or seated in a cup-shaped lobed peri- 

 gynium. 



20. SCLERIA, Bergius. 



Nut globose, ovate, or triangular ; the base surrounded 

 with a lobed, repand, or annular perigynium. Style 3-cleft, 

 deciduous. — Culms leafy ; spikelets fasciculate, racemose, pa- 

 niculate, or verticellately spiked. 



Scleria, Berg. act. Holm. 1765, p. 144 ; Schreb. gen. pL 

 no. 1408 ; Kunth, sijn. 1. p. 160 ; N. ah Esenb. in Wight's 

 contrib. p. 116, and in Linncea, 9. p. 302. 



1. Scleria reticularis, Michx. 



Culm erect, retrorsely scabrous on the angles towards the 

 base ; fascicles lateral and terminal, very remote, subsessile, 

 somewhat branched, loosely flowered ; scales and bracts 

 smooth ; nut globose, conspicuously reticulated with elevated 

 lines, deeply pitted between the lines ; perigynium 3-lobed ; 

 the lobes ovate, appressed. 



S. reticularis, Michx. Jl. 2. p. 167, (not of Pursh, Elliott, and Muhl.) ', 

 Willd. p. 4. p. 314. 



Culm 2 feet high, triangular, somewhat compressed and slender. 

 Leaves H line wide, smooth, flat. Fascicles of spikelets about an inch 

 long, the lateral ones 2 or 3 in number, and very remote, standing on 

 short nearly included peduncles. Spikelets in pairs : the sterile lanceo- 

 late, on a short stipe at the base of the fertile spikelet, many-flowered ; 

 the scales somewhat dislichously arranged, lanceolate, each bearing 

 two stamens, the filaments of which project a little beyond the scale : 

 fertile spikelets mostly of 3 ovate, mucronate and carinate scales ; 

 the two interior embracing the nut at its base. Style 3-clefl nearly 



Vol. III. 48 



