SEDGE FAMILY 



205 



none. Stamen 1. Style 2-cleft. Achene subterete. Species 3. (Greek hemi, 

 half, and karpos, chaff, in reference to the inner bractlet.) 



Bibliog. Coville, F. V., Genus Hemicarpha in N. Am. (Bull. Torr. Club 21:34-37, 1894). 

 Britton, N. L., Genus Hemicarpha (111. Fl. ed. 2, 1:339-340, 1913). 



Scales spreading only at the tip or erect, little exceeding the aehenes 1. H. micrantha. 



Scales spreading, 2 to 3 times as long as the aehenes 2. H. occidentalis. 



1. H. micrantha Pax. Stems % to l 1 /^ inches high, sheathed at base with 

 1 or 2 short filiform leaves ; involucral bract y 2 to 6 lines long ; spikelets 1 to 3, 

 ovate, reddish-brown, 1 to I 1 /? lines long; scales cuneate-obovate, short-acuminate 

 and slightly spreading at the tip or erect, little longer than the (% line long) 

 achene; bractlet adherent to the achene. 



San Diego Co. and Sierra Nevada foothills. Washington to the Atlantic and 

 South America. 



Locs. Jacksonville bridge, Tuolumne River, A. L. Grant 580; San Diego, Orcutt (ace. Gray 

 Herb.). Var. aristulata Cov. Stems 4 to 8 inches high; spikelets conspicuously squarrose by 

 reason of the abruptly attenuate scales ; aehenes black. Great Plains region ; also Washington 

 and California ace. Britton, 111. FL ed. 2, 1:340 (1913). 



Eefs. HEMICARPHA MICRANTHA Pax; Engler & Prantl, Nat. Pflzr. 2 2 :105 (1887). Stirpus 

 micranthus Vahl, Enum. PI. 2:254 (1806). H. subsquarrosa Wats. Bot, Cal. 2:220 (1880). 

 Var. ARISTULATA Cov. Bull. Torr. Club 21:36 (1894), type from Texas, Nealley. H. aristulata 

 Smyth, Trans. Kans. Aead. Sci. 16:163 (1899); Nelson, Bull. Torr. Club, 29:400 (1902). 



2. H. occidentalis Gray. (Fig. 26.) Similar; 

 stems 1 to 2 inches high ; spikelets greenish, broadly 

 ovate ; scales % to 1 line long, the body oblong or 

 lanceolate, 3 or 4-nerved, abruptly tapering into 

 a spreading awn-like tip 1 to 1^ times as long: 

 bractlet not adherent to the achene; achene brown- 

 ish, narrow-obovoid, somewhat flattened. 



Middle altitudes : cismontane Southern Califor- 

 nia; Sierra Nevada. North to Washington. 



Locs. Lake Surprise, Mt. San Jacinto, F. M. Seed 

 2443; Bluff Lake, San Bernardino Mts., Parish 3268; 

 Yosemite, Congdon; Jacksonville Bridge, Tuolumne River, 

 A. L. Grant 580a. 



Ref. HEMICARPHA OCCIDENTALIS Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. 

 7:391 (1868), type loc. Yosemite, Bolander. 



1. SCHOENUS L. 



Mostly perennials with rush-like tufted rigid 

 steins. Leaves semi-terete, basal, the sheaths dark- 

 colored. Spikelets 1 to 6-flowered, aggregated in 

 a terminal cluster. Scales in 2 ranks, the lower 

 ones empty, the upper with perfect or pistillate 

 flowers, the uppermost with staminate flowers or 

 empty. Perianth of 3 to 6 plumose or smooth 

 bristles or none. Stamens usually 3. Style- 

 branches 3. Achene 3-angled, without a tubercle. Species 61, mostly in New 

 Zealand and Australia but also occurring in North and South America, Europe 

 and Africa. (Greek schoirios, a rush.) 



Fig. 23. HEMICARPHA OCCI- 

 DENTALIS Gray, a, entire 

 plant, XI; b, spikelet, X 

 8; c, scale, X 18; d, achene, 

 X 18. 



