Fimbristylis. CYPERACEvE. 223 



6. FIMBRISTYLIS, Vahl. 



Flowers perfect, usually numerous, the scales closely imbricated around the rhachis 

 of the spikes, which are solitary or in clusters usually in a simple or compound in-, 

 volucrate umbel upon a stem leafy at base. Perianth none. Stamens 1 to 3. 

 Styles 2 - 3-cleft, often flattened and ciliate, somewhat dilated at base, at length 

 wholly deciduous from the nutlet, or the base rarely persistent. Nutlet lenticular 

 or triangular, usually attenuate at base or substipitate. 



A genus of 150 species or more, chiefly of tropical or subtropical regions, barely a half-dozen 

 occurring within the limits of the United States. 



* Spikes umbellate, solitary. 

 t- Style 2-cleft, flattened and ciliate : nutlet lenticular : tubercle soon deciduous. 



1 . F. thermalis, Watson. Stems from short matted rootstocks, a foot or two 

 high, flattened and more or less scabrous, striate : leaves 1 or 2 lines broad, flat be- 

 coming channelled or revolute, more or less pubescent, very rough on the margin : 

 involucres and involucels of several linear-subulate acuminate scabrous bracts shorter 

 than the rays (^ to 1 inch long) : spikes 2 to 8 (rarely only the central sessile one), 

 ovate to linear- oblong, 3 to 10 lines long; scales dull brown, pubescent, ovate, ob- 

 tuse, mucronate : stamens 2 or 3 : nutlet obovate, obscurely striate, of a line 

 long. Bot. King Exp. 360. 



Margins of hot springs, near Kernville (Rothrock, n. 303) and San Bernardino ( W. G. Wright), 

 and in Ruby Valley, Nevada ( Watson) ; first collected by Brewer (n. 2832), at warm springs in 

 Owen's Valley. 



Presl (Rel. Hamk. i. 192) describes another species of this group under the name of F. verru- 

 cosa), the typical form of which is doubtless F. diphylla, Vahl (F. laxa). His variety /3, said 

 to have been collected at Monterey and also credited to Mexico, with nutlet longitudinally cos- 

 tate, transversely striate, and tuberculate toward the top, is more uncertain and probably not 

 from California. 



i- H Style 3-cleft, filiform and not ciliate : nutlet acutely triangular. 

 H- Tubercle soon deciduous : nutlet granular-tuberculate. 



2. F. miliacea, Vahl. Apparently annual : stems tufted, 4-angled, to 2 feet 

 high, very leafy at base : leaves with broad open sheaths, linear, very narrowly 

 attenuate upward : umbel diffusely compound, the involucres and involucels of sev- 

 eral filiform bracts broad at base : spikelets subglobose, about a line long ; scales 

 numerous, closely imbricated, pale brown, broadly ovate, obtuse : stamen 1 : nutlet 

 very small, obovoid, whitish, 3- ribbed and muricate-tuberculate. 



A species of tropical Asia and Australia, collected near San Francisco (A. Wood), but doubtless 

 introduced. 



GUSSONIA CYPEROIDES, Presl, 1. c. 183, t. 33, described as from Monterey, California, is re- 

 ferred to Abildgaardia by both Nees and Kunth, and with evident correctness, nor does the 

 species seem to differ at all from a few-flowered form of A. fusca, Nees. Mr. Bentham in the 

 Flora Australiensis includes Abildgaardia, as a section under Fimbristylis, distinguished by its 

 flattened distichous spikelets ; otherwise its characters correspond nearly with those of the present 

 group. Inasmuch as the localities of Haenke's collections are known to have been much confused 

 and not to be relied upon as given by Presl, it is probable that his specimens of this species were 

 not collected in California. Should it be found, however, it may be known by its lanceolate 

 2-ranked spikelets, with carinate scales decurrent upon the short joints of the rhachis in the 

 manner of Cypcrus % Mariscus; stamens 3 ; nutlet densely tuberculate. 



H- -H- Tubercle more or less persistent : nutlet faintly wrinkled transversely. 



3. F. capillaris, Gray. Annual, tufted, the bristle-like stems 2 to 10 inches 

 high, much exceeding the filiform leaves : umbel simple or compound, rarely re- 

 duced to a single apparently lateral spikelet : involucral bracts short, setaceous : 

 spikelets oblong-ovate, few-flowered, 1 to 3 lines long ; scales dark brown with 

 green midvein, ovate, acutish : stamens 2 : nutlet broadly obovate and rather acutely 



