378 North American Cyperacece. 



(excl. syn. Michx.); Pursh, fl. 1. p. 46. (excl. syn. Michx.)\ Elliott, 

 sk. 2. p. 559 ; Darlingt ! fl. Cest. ed. 2. p. 26 ; Beck. hot. p. 430. 



Culm erect, 9 — 18 inches high, triquetrous, striate, slightly scabrous 

 toward the summit. Leaves scarcely a line wide, nearly smooth ; the 

 sheaths clothed with a short pubescence. Fascicles 2 — 3, composed of 

 about three pairs of spikelets ; the lateral ones on long slender peduncles. 

 Bracts foliaceous ; the inner ones ciliate. Spikelets in pairs ; the 

 sterile few-flowered, sessile in the second scale of the fertile spikelet ; 

 the scales membranaceous, acute, each covering three filaments : fer- 

 tile spikelet of 3 coriaceous, ovate, mucronate scales, which are some- 

 what ciliate on the keel. Between the sterile spikelet and the fertile 

 scale which embraces it is a filiform process, or abortive pedicel. Style 

 3-cleft. Nut white, shining, roughened with minute prominences. At 

 the base there are a number of capitate stipitate warts, or processes, pro- 

 jecting downward ; the little heads appearing pulverulent under a strong 

 lens. Perigynium a narrow somewhat undulate ring, upon which, and 

 between it and the base of the nut, are 6 roundish cellular bodies like 

 those of >S. oligantha. 



Hab. Serpentine hills, near west Chester, Pennsylvania, 

 Dr. Darlington ! ; swamps, in the same state, Muhlenberg/ ; 

 Walpole, New Hampshire, /. Carey, Esq. ! ; damp pastures 

 and pine barrens. South Carolina, Elliott. 



Obs. In my New Hampshire specimens, the little rounded 

 bodies of the perigynium are closely approximated in pairs, ?o 

 that they seem to be 2-lobed. 



/S. Leaves, sheaths and bracts smooth ; nut somewhat 

 wrinkled transversely, faintly marked with longitudinal lines ; 

 processes of the perigynium 3, dilated, obscurely 2-lobed. 



Hab. Southern States, i>r. Baldivin ! ; North Carolina, 

 Mr. Curtis ! 



5. SCLERIA CILIATA, Michx. 



Culm erect, nearly naked ; leaves channelled, pubescent 

 above ; fascicle subsolitary, terminal ; bracts and scales ciliate ; 

 nut subglobose, verrucose ; the warts at the base stipitate ; 

 perigynium a narrow ring supporting 3 tubercles. 



