CYfERACEyE. (SEDGE FAMILY.) 551 



the 3-nerved keel; nnt (bluish) obovate, obtuse, wrinkled. Dry sandy soil, 

 Florida to North Carolina. August - Sept. 



6. I. Warei, Torr. Culms filiform (l-li high), smooth, 3-augled, 

 much longer than the bristle-form hispid leaves ; sheaths bearded at the 

 throat with long silky hairs; leaves of the involucre rigid, twice as long as 

 the head, orbicular and cut-fringed at the base ; spikes 8 - 10 in a head, ovate, 

 niauy-riowered ; scales ovate, mucrouate, many-nerved ; nut obovate, obtusely 

 angled, obscurely wrinkled. Dry sands near the coast, Florida. Sept. 

 Heads % in diameter. 



13. ABILDGAARDIA, Vahl. 



Spikes many-flowered. Scales imbricated in 2 or (by the twisting of the 

 rachis) 3 rows, keeled, decurrent on the rachis, deciduous. Perianth none. 

 Stamens 1-3. Style 3-cleft, tumid at the base, deciduous. Nut 3-angled. 

 Culms jointless, leafy at the base. Spikes solitary, clustered or umbelled. 



1. A. mOELOStachya, Vahl. Culms filiform, tufted (6'- 10' high); 

 leaves shorter than the culm, filiform, obtuse, concave ; spikes solitary (rarely 

 by pairs), ovate, acute, compressed, 8- 12-flowered, much longer than the 

 bract-like mucrouate 1-leaved involucre; scales broadly ovate, acute or mu- 

 cronate, compressed-keeled, with broad and white margins ; stamens 3 ; nut 

 somewhat pear-shaped, 3-angled, warty, yellowish white. South Florida 

 (Dr. Blodgelt). 



14. RHYNCHOSPORA, A r ahl. BEAK RUSH. 



Spikes 1 - several-flowered. Scales imbricated in few rows, the lowest 

 empty, the upper usually bearing imperfect flowers. Perianth of 3-6 (rarely 

 12-20) hispid or plumose bristles, occasionally wanting. Stamens mostly 3. 

 Style 2-cleft Nut lenticular or globose, crowned with the dilated and persist- 

 ent base of the style (tubercled). Perennials, with jointed and leafy culms. 

 Spikes small, disposed in axillary and terminal corymbs or clusters. 



1. ERIOCHLETE. Bristles of the perianth 6, plumose. 



1. R. plumosa, Ell. Culms (6' -12' high) and leaves filiform; spikes 

 few, in about three small clusters at the summit of the culm ; nut nearly glob- 

 ular, strongly wrinkled, pointed with the short ovate smooth tubercle; bris- 

 tles rather longer than the nut, plumose throughout or nearly to the summit. 

 Low pine barrens, Florida to North Carolina. June -July. 



Var. intermedia. Culms taller (l-2 high) ; leaves narrowly linear; 

 clusters 4-6, forming an interrupted spike at the summit of the culm; nut 

 obovate, pointed with the conical-beaked pubescent tubercle ; bristles plumose 

 only at the base, or below the middle. Sandy pine barrens, often in dry 

 places, Florida. 



2. R. semiplumosa, Gray. Culms erect, rigid (l-2 high); leaves 

 narrowly linear; spikes oblong-ovate, dark brown, crowded in a terminal 

 head, or rarely in a remote axillary one ; nut globose-obovate, faintly wrinkled, 

 pointed with the short broadly conical smooth tubercle ; bristles exceeding 



