186 



CYPERACEAE (SEDGE FAMILY) 



1. P. scirpoides Torr. Annual (0.2-3 din. high), leafy; 

 leaves flat ; spikelets 20-30-flowered ; scales oblong-ovate, acute, 

 chestnut-colored ; achene finely roughened, somewhat margined, 

 beaked with a lony sword-shaped almost icholly persistent style. 

 Wet sandy shores and swamps, Mass, and R. I.; n. Ini 

 y V Aug.-Oct. FIG. 266. 



\ I 2. P. nitens (Vahl) Wood. Similar ; often be- 



9 I coming 5-7 dm. high ; faces of the achene with A 



266. P scirpoides str <> n ff transverse ribs; tubercle depressed, broader 



than high. Wet sandy shores and bogs, L. I. and 267. P. nitens. 

 Del, southw.; n. Ind. Aug.-Oct. FIG. 267. 



7. STENOPHYLLUS Raf. 



Spikelets as in Fimbristylis, the comparatively large scales in few ranks. 

 Stamens 2 or 3. Style 2-3-cleft, filiform, glabrous, its base swollen and forming 

 a persistent colored tubercle. Otherwise as in Fimbristylis; standing in the 

 same relation to that genus as Eleocharis to Scirpus. Leaves primarily basal, 

 narrowly linear or filiform, the sheaths hairy or ciliate. (Name 

 from ffTtvbs, narrow, and <pi>\\ov, leaf.) 



1. S. capillaris (L.) Britton. Low annual, densely tufted 

 (0.3-3 dm. high) ; culms and leaves nearly capillary, the latter 

 short, minutely ciliate ; umbels compound or panicled, loose or 

 268. 8. capillaris. compact (iu dwarf plant often much reduced) ; spikelets ovoid- 

 oblong, brown to blackish ; stamens 2 ; achene acutely triangular, 

 minutely wrinkled, very blunt. (Fimbristylis Gray.) Sandy fields, Me. to Fla., 

 w. to the Pacific. July-Oct. (Trop. Am.) FIG. 268. 



8. FIMBRfSTYLIS Vahl. 



Spikelets several-many-flowered, terete ; scales all floriferous, regularly imbri- 

 cated in several ranks. Stamens 1-3. Style 2-3-cleft, often with a dilated or 

 tumid base, which is deciduous from the apex of the naked lenticular or trian- 

 gular achene. Otherwise as in Scirpus. Spikelets in our 

 species umbelled, and the involucre 2-3-leaved. (Name com- 

 pounded of fimbria, a fringe, and stylus, style, which is 

 fringed with hairs in the genuine species.) 



* Style 2-cleft ; achene lenticular. 

 *- Spikelets mostly on elongate rays ; style ciliate. 



1. F. spadicea (L.) Vahl. Perennial, rigid; the thickened 

 base covered with firm dark sheaths ; culms wiry, 0.3-1 m. 

 high, nearly naked ; leaves pale and firm, 

 involute ; umbel 3-10-rayed, the rays very 

 unequal, some simple, others forking ; 

 spikelets ovoid to short-cylindric, 0.7-1.7 

 cm. long, the firm somewhat lustrous dark 

 scales all glabrous ; stamens 2 or 3 ; 

 achene broadly obovate, lustrous, minutely 

 striate and reticulated. Sand-dunes and 

 brackish shores, Va. to Fla. and Tex. 

 Aug.-Oct. (Trop. Am.) FIG. 2(50. 



2. F. castanea (Michx.) Vahl. Similar; more slender 

 (1.5-7 dm. high) and freely stolonifer/ms ; the basal sheaths 

 "TO F castanea softer and thinner; the culms and the thread-form or con- 

 volute-channeled leaves smooth and somewhat rigid ; spikelets 

 ovoid-ellipsoid 0.5-1 cm. long, becoming cylindrical, chestnut-color; the scales 

 softer and thinner, at least the lower puberulent. (F. spadicea, var. Gray.) 

 Salt marshes and sand, along the coast from N. Y. to Fla. and Tex. ; extending 

 northw. in the interior to Ont, Mich., 111., and Neb. July-Oct. FIG. 270. 



269. F. spadicea. 



