218 CYPERACE.E. Scirpus. 



Var. OCCidentaliS. Scales often pubescent, especially on the mid vein, usually 

 pale with tine brown lines : filaments at length broad and exserted : bristles not ex- 

 serted : nutlet broadly obovate, rounded at the summit, terminating abruptly in a 

 rather short beak. 



The species is widely distributed, under several forms, being found in Europe and Asia, tem- 

 perate and tropical North America, the Sandwich Islands, New Zealand and Australia. Only the 

 variety is found in California, ranging from San Diego County to British Columbia and eastward 

 to Texas and Colorado. In common with the next it is familiarly known under the name of 

 "Tule," occupying large areas in overflowed bottom-lands and marshy places throughout the 

 State. It is sometimes 8 to 12 feet high and an inch or more in diameter at base. The eastern 

 form (S. valid/us, Vahl), of the Atlantic States (from Lake Winnipeg to Florida) and the West 

 Indies, has rather smaller and broader spikelets, shorter and narrower filaments, bristles at length 

 exserted, and a narrower nutlet somewhat attenuated at top. 



5. S. Tatora, Kunth. Very closely resembling the last, but readily distin- 

 guished by the bristles of the perianth, which are 2 to 4, very dark brown, stout or 

 somewhat flattened and retrorsely plumose with short curved hairs, shorter than the 

 nutlet : scales brown, not pubescent : filaments broad, rarely exceeding the nutlet, 

 which is narrowly obovate, shortly attenuate into the stout beak. Enum. ii. 166. 

 Elytrospermum Calif ornicum, C. A. Meyer, Cyp. Nov. 7, t. 2. S. riparius, Presl, 

 Eel. Hrenk. i. 193, not Spreng. Malachochcete riparia, Nees & Meyen; Gay, Fl. 

 Chil. vi. 1 76, t. 7. S. pseudotriqueter, Steud. Cyp. 86. 



From the Sacramento Valley to Mexico and eastward to Louisiana ; also in South America from 

 Peru and Chili to Brazil. 



H- -t~ Stem acutely triangular or triquetrous. 



H- Stem leafless or with a single short leaf at base: involucral bract stout and 



triangular. 



6. S. Olneyi, Gray. Stem stout, 2 to 7 feet high, from a stout running root- 

 stock, more or less deeply triquetrous or wing-angled, continued as involucre an inch 

 or less beyond the inflorescence: spikelets 2 to 12 in a crowded sessile cluster, 

 oblong-ovate, acute or rather obtuse, 2 to 6 lines long, usually short : scales thin, 

 brown, broad and obtuse, glabrous or slightly ciliate : anthers shortly acute : bristles 

 4 or 6, rather shorter than the narrowly obovate plano-convex prominently beaked 

 nutlet : style 2-cleft. PI. Lindh. 30. S. pungens, Benth. PL Hartw. 27. S. tri- 

 queter (?), Torr. Pacif. R. Rep. iv. 153. 



From San Francisco (Bigelow) to San Diego and across the continent ; Mexico, Gregg, Hartireg. 



H- -H- Stem somewhat leafy : leaves obversely flattened, channelled : involucral 

 bract more slender and channelled. 



7. S. pungens, Vahl. Stem usually slender, 1 to 4 feet high, acutely triangu- 

 lar : leaves 1 to 4, shorter than the stem ; the more or less channelled bract 1 to 4 

 inches long : spikelets 1 to 6, closely crowded, ovate to ovate-oblong : scales brown, 

 often very dark, broadly ovate, emarginate and usually conspicuously tipped with a 

 straight awn : anthers narrowly acuminate : bristles 2 to 6, shorter than the obovate 

 plano-convex prominently beaked nutlet, which is somewhat narrowed at base, 

 nearly 1 ^ lines long : style 2- rarely 3-cleft. Boeck. 1. c. 708. S. badius, Presl, 

 Eel. Haenk. i. 193. S. Rothii, Hoppe; Reichenb. 1. c., t. 304. 



Less frequent than the preceding in California, though common in the Atlantic States : Arroyo 

 del Puerto (Brewer); Monterey, near the sea (Haenkc, Brewer); Mono Lake and the Great Salt 

 Lake, and southward into Mexico ; also in South America and the West Indies, in Australia, and 

 the western Mediterranean region. 



* * Involucre foliaceous, spreading : stems triangular, leafy at base : leaves flat. 

 -t Spikelets large, few, in a sessile cluster or sparingly umbellate, rufous. 



8. S. maritimus, Linn. Stems stout, 1 to 3 feet high, from running often 

 tuberiferous rootstocks : leaves equalling or exceeding the stem ; involucral bracts 



