694 CYPERACEZ STENOPHYLSLU 
RYNCHOSPORA 
pressed, narrowly ovate or linear-oblong, acute, broader than the stem, 
2-10-flowered, 1-4 lines long, 4 line wide: scales oblong, obtuse, or the 
upper subacute, thin, pale green, usually with a narrow brown stripe on 
each side of the midrib, deciduous, many of them commonly sterile: brist- 
les 2-4, fragile, fugacious, shorter than the achene: stamens 3: style 
3-cleft: achenes obovoid-oblong: tubercle conic, acute, 144 as long as the 
achene. In wet soil, throughout North America: also Europe and Asia. 
E. rostellata Torr. Fl. N. Y. ii, 347, Perennial by a short caudex: 
stems slender, the fertile erect, the sterile reclining and rooting at the 
apex, 1-5 feet long: upper sheaths truncate: spikes oblong, narrowed at 
both ends, thicker than the stem, 10-20-flowered, 4-6 lines long, about a 
line in diameter: scales ovate, obtuse or the upper acute, green with a 
somewhat darker midrid and slightly scarious margins: bristles 4-8, longer 
than the achene and tubercle: stamens 3: style 3-cleft: achene oblong- 
obovoid, obscurely 3-angled: tubercle conic-subulate, about half as long a 
the achene. Brit. Columbia to California and the Atlantic States. 
7 STENOPHYLLUS Raf. Neog. 4, (1825.) 
Annual herbs with slender erect stems, narrowly linear or fili- 
form leaves with ciliate or pubescent sheaths and perfect flowers 
in umbellate, capitate or solitary spikelets subtended by a one- to 
several-leaved involucre. Scales spirally imbricated all around, 
mostly deciduous. Perianth wholly wanting. Stamens 2 or 3. 
Style 2- or 3-cleft, glabrous, at base much swollen and persistent 
on the achene asatubercle. Achene 3-angled, turgid or lenticular. 
S. capillaris Britton Bull. Torr. Bot, Club xxi, 30. Fimbristylis cap- 
illaris Gray. Stems filiform, densely tufted, erect, grooved, smooth, 2-10 
inches high: leaves filiform, roughish, much shorter than the stem, their 
sheaths more or less pubescent with long hairs: involucral leaves 1-3, se- 
taceous, shorter than or one of them exceeding the inflorescence: spikelets 
narrowly oblong, somewhat 4-sided, 2-4 lines long, less than a line thick, 
several in a simple or compound umbel, or sometimes solitary: scales ob- 
long, obtuse or emarginate, pubescent, dark brown with green keel: 
stamens 2: style 3-cleft: achenes yellowish brown, narrowed at base, very 
obtuse or truncate at the summit 14 line long, 3-angled, transversely 
wrinkled: tubercle minute, depressed. In dry or moist soil throughout 
North America. . 
8 RYNCHOSPORA Vahl. Enum. ii, 229. (1806.) 
Leafy-stemmed herbs with erect 3-angled-or terete stems, nar- 
row flat or involute leaves and small flowers in variously clustered 
spikelets. Scales thin, 1-nerved, imbricated all around, usually 
mucronate by the excurrent midrib, the lower empty. Upper 
flowers imperfect, the lower perfect. Perianth of 1-20 barbed or 
scabrous bristles or none. Stamenscommonly 3. Style 2-cleft, 
2-toothed or entire. Achenes lenticular or swollen, capped by the 
persistent base of the style, or sometimes by the whole style. 
R. alba Vahl Enum. ii, 236. Pale green: rootstock short: stems 
slender or almost filiform, glabrous, 6-20 inches high: leaves setaceous, 
44-26 line wide, shorter than the stem: spikelets several or numerous, in 
1-4 dense corymbose terminal and axillary clusters, narrowly oblong, 
acute, at both ends, 1-3 lines long: scales ovate or ovate-lanceolate, white, 
acute: bristles 9-15, downwardly barbed, slender, about as long as the 
achene and tubercle: achene obovate-oblong, smooth, pale brown, lenticu- 
