CYPERACEAE. 



47 



1. Kyllinga brevifolia L. Short- 

 leaved Kyllinga. (Fig. 69.) Perennial 

 by slender rootstocks, pale green. Leaves 

 mostly shorter than the culm, V'-li" wide, 

 smooth; culms very slender or filiform, 4'- 

 15' tall, smooth; bracts of the involucre 3, 

 one erect, the others spreading; spike soli- 

 tary, globose or ovoid, 2V'-^" long, green- 

 ish, with many spikelets; spikelets oblong- 

 ovoid, 1"-!^" long, acuminate; scales vari- 

 ous, the 2 outer minute, the third and fourth 

 ovate, with recurved tips and serrulate- 

 eiliate keels; achenes lenticular, orbicular- 

 obovate, about V' long. [K. monocephala 

 of Reade, Lefroy, H. B. Small and Hemsley.] 



Common along the borders of marshes. 

 Native. Southeastern United States, West 

 Indies, tropical America ; Old World tropics. 



3. SCIRPUS L. 



Annual or perennial very small to very 



large sedges, with leafy culms or the leaves 



reduced to basal sheaths. Spikelets terete 



or somewhat flattened, solitary, capitate, 



spieate or umbellate, subtended by a 1- 



several-leaved involucre or the involucre wanting in some species. Scales 

 spirally imbricated all around, usually all fertile, the 1-3 lov^'er sometimes 

 empty. Flowers perfect. Perianth of 1-6, slender or rigid, short or elongated, 

 barbed, pubescent or smooth bristles, or none in some species. Stamens 2 or 3. 

 Style 2-3-cleft, not swollen at the base, wholly deciduous from the achene, or 

 its base persistent as a subulate tip. Achene triangular, lenticular or plano- 

 convex. [Latin, Bulrush, said to be from sirs, Celtic for rushes.] About 150 

 species of wide geographic distribution. Type species: Scirpus lacustris L. 



Spikelets few, appearing as if lateral ; 

 culm ,3-angled. 

 Involucral leaf short, stout. 



1. 8. Olneyi. 

 Involucral leaf long, slender. 



2. -S. amrrironus. 

 Spikelets several or numerous, umbellate ; 



culm terete. 3. /S. valid us. 



1. Scirpus Olneyi A. Gray. Olnet 's 

 Bulrush. (Fig. 70.) Perennial by 

 rootstocks; culms stout, sharply 3 -angled 

 with concave sides, l^°-6° tall. Leaves 

 1-3, l'-5' long, or sheaths sometimes 

 leafless; spikelets capitate in dense 

 clusters of 5-12, oblong or ovoid-oblong, 

 obtuse, 2^"-4" long, the involucral leaf 

 short, stout, erect, V-IV long; scales 

 oval or orbicular, dark brown with a 

 green midvein, emarginate or muoronu- 

 late, glabrous; bristles usually 6, slightly 

 shorter than or equalling the achene, 

 downwardly barbed ; stamens 2-3 ; style 

 2-eleft; achene obovate, plano-convex, 

 brown, mucronate. 



In Warwick Marsh, 1905; marsh near Whale Bay, 1014. Native. Atlantic. 

 Gulf and Pacific coasts of the United States ; Cuba. Flowers in summer and autumn. 



