CYPERACEAE (SEDGE FAMILY) 



171 



198. II. patula. 

 Spikelet x 1. 

 Floret x 1%. 



1. H. patula Moench. Culms 6-12 dm. high ; leaves spreading, 1-2 dm. long, 

 8-15 mm. wide, tapering to both ends, scabrous ; spike short-exserted or par- 

 tially included, 6-12 cm. long; spikelets usually distant, at first 

 erect, soon widely diverging, 1-1.5 cm. long excluding the awns; 

 lemmas pubescent at least at the summit or nearly glabrous ; awns 

 1.5-4 cm. long. (Asprella Willd. ; H. Hystrix Millsp.) Moist 

 woods, N. B. to Minn. , and southw. June-Aug. FIG. 198. 



83. ARUNDINARIA Michx. CANE 



Spikelets 2-raany-flowered, perfect or the upper imperfect, 

 laterally compressed, in racemes or panicles ; glumes unequal, 

 shorter than the lemmas, the first sometimes obsolete ; lemmas 

 firm, keeled, many-nerved, acute or mucronate ; paleas nearly as 

 long as their lemmas, 2-keeled and several-nerved ; lodicules 3 ; 

 styles 2 or 3 ; grain free within the lemma and palea. Arbo- 

 rescent or shrubby grasses with terminal and lateral panicles of large spikelets. 

 (Name from arundo, a reed.) 



1. A macrosperma Michx. (LARGE C.) Culms arborescent, 3-10 m. 

 high and 1-7 cm. thick at base, rigid, simple the first year, branching the 

 second, afterwards fruiting at indefinite periods ; leaves 

 lanceolate, 2-5 cm. long, 1.5-3 cm. wide, smoothish or pubes- 

 cent, the sheath ciliate on the margin, fimbriate at the sum- 

 mit ; panicle lateral, composed of few simple unequal racemes ; 

 spikelets 3-5 cm. long, 5-15-fiowered, purplish or pale, erect. 

 River banks, s. Va., Ky., and southw., forming cane 

 brakes. Apr. FIG. 199. 



2. A. tScta (Walt.) Muhl. (SWITCH C., SMALL C.) 

 Lower and more slender, 1-4 m. high, branching above ; 

 leaves 8-20 cm. long, 0.8-3 cm. wide, more tapering at base ; 

 panicles of few aggregated spikelets on long slender branches 

 with rather loose sheaths, the blades very minute ; spikelets 

 2.5-4 cm. long, 5-10-flowered. (A. macrosperma, var. suffru- 

 ticosa Munro.) Swamps, moist soil, or in water, Md., s. Ind., 111., Mo., and 

 southw. Sometimes blooming several years in succession. 



199. A. macrospertna. 

 Spikelet x %. 

 Floret x %. 



CYPERACEAE (SEDGE FAMILY) 



Grass-like or rush-like herbs, with fibrous roots, mostly solid stems (culms), 

 closed sheaths, and spiked chiefly 3-androus flowers, one in the axil of each of 

 the glume-like imbricated bracts (scales, glumes), destitute of any perianth, or 

 with hypogynous bristles or scales in its place ; the l-celled ovary with a single 

 erect anatropous ovule, in fruit forming an achene. Style 2-cleft with the fruit 

 flattened or lenticular, or 3-cleft and fruit 3-angular. Embryo minute at the 

 base of the somewhat floury albumen. Stem-leaves when present 3-ranked. A 

 large, widely diffused family. 



.tV. B. In this family, unless otherwise noted, the figures representing the 

 inflorescence or a portion of it are on a scale of f , while those representing the 

 achene or perigynium are on a scale of 2|. In a few cases a bit of the surface 

 of the achene is shown on a scale of 10. 



I. Flowers all perfect, rarely some of them with stamens or pistil abortive ; 

 spikes all of one sort. 



Tribe I. SCfRPEAE. Spikelets mostly inany-flowered, with only 1 (rarely more) of the lower 

 scales empty. 



* Scales of the spikelet strictly 2-ranked, couduplicate and keeled. 



