CYPEKACEAE. 



45 



5. Cyperus brunneus Sw. Coast 

 Cyperus. (Fig. 65.) Perennial, pale 

 green. Leaves overtopped by the stout 

 culm, l"-4" wide, smooth, sometimes 

 involute; culms erect, usually solitary, 

 l°-2i° tall, 3-angled, smooth; bracts of 

 the involucre 4-5, all of them or the 

 longer ones surpassing the umbel, 

 spreading; umbel compound, capitate, 

 or some of the rays becoming V-2' 

 long; spikelets linear or linear-lanceo- 

 late, 5"-8" long, V'-ll" wide, chestnut- 

 colored, densely crowded; scales oval or 

 ovate-oval, often apiculate, ribbed; 

 achenes 3-angled, elliptic-obovoid, dark- 

 brown, granular. 



Coastal sands, Paget, 1905. Native. Coasts of Florida and the West Indies. 

 Probably transported to Bermuda by floating. Flowers* in summer and autumn. 

 This sedge is not recorded as Bermudian by any previous author ; it may have 

 reached Bermuda recently. It was not abundant when collected by us in 19u5. 



6. Cjrperus rotundus L. Nut- 

 grass. (Fig. 66.) Perennial by scaly 

 tuber-bearing rootstocks ; culm rather 

 stout, 4'-2° high, usually longer than 

 the leaves. Leaves lV'-3" wide, those 

 of the involucre 3-5; umbel 3-8- 

 rayed, the longer rays 2'-4i' long; 

 spikelets linear, clustered, few in each 

 cluster, acute, 4"-10" long, 1"-1^" 

 wide; scales dark purple-brown or 

 with green margins and centre, ovate, 

 acute, appressed when mature, about 

 3-nerved on the keel ; stamens 3 ; style 

 3-clef t, its branches exserted ; achene 

 3-angled, about one half as long as 

 the scale. [C. hydra Michx.] 



Common as a weed in cultivated and waste grounds. Native. Southeastern 

 United States, West Indies, tropical continental America : tropical and subtropical 

 regions of the Old World. Flowers from spring to autumn. The plant is freely 

 propagated by its tubers which are readily detached in plowing or spading and 

 this makes it a difficult weed to eradicate. 



