CYPEKACEAE (SEDGE FAMILY) 



199 



313. R. corniculata. 



14. RYNCHOSPORA Vahl. Beak Rush 



Spikelets panicled or variously clustered, ovate, globular, or spindle-shaped, 

 terete, or sometimes flattish ; but the scales open or barely concave (not boat- 

 shaped nor keeled) ; the lower commonly loosely imbricated and empty, the 

 uppermost often subtending imperfect flowers. Perianth of bristles. Stamens 

 mostly 3. Achene lenticular, globular, or flat, crowned with a conspicuous 

 tubercle or beak consisting of the persistent hidurated base or even of the greater 

 part of the style. — Chiefly perennials, with more or less 

 triangular and leafy culms ; the spikelets in terminal and 

 axillary clusters ; flowering in summer. (Name composed 

 of pvyxos, a snout, and cnropd, a seed, from the beaked 

 achene. ) 



§ 1. Spikelets lanceolate, acuminate, in fruit flattish,^ 

 cymose-panicled, of only one perfect and 1-4 staminate 

 flowers; scales feio ; bristles rigid, minutely scabrous 

 'upward; style simple or barely ^-toothed, filiform 



and gradually thickened downward, in 



fruit persistent as an exserted slender 



aid-shaped upvmrdly roughened beak, 



several times longer than the smooth 



flat obovate achene ; coarse perennials ; 



spikelets in flower 1-1.5, in fruit (in- 

 cluding the projecting beak) 2-3 cm. 



long. 



1. R. corniculata (Lam.) Gray. 

 (HoRXED Rush.) Culm 0.5-2 m, high; 



leaves 0.6-2 cm. wide ; cymes decompound, diffuse ; bristles 

 awl-shaped, stout, unequal, shorter than the achene. — Wet 

 places on the coastal plain, Del. and Pa. to Fla. and Tex., 

 locally northw. in the Miss. Basin to Mo., Ind., and 0. 

 June-Sept. Fig. 313. 



2. R. macrostachya Torr. Erect and rather stiff ; the 

 glomerules mostly of 10-50 spikdets, strongly ascending, 

 sessile or on few short rays; bristles cajnllary, twice the 

 length of the achene. — Borders of ponds, Mass. to Fla. and 

 Tex., locallv northw. in the Miss. Basin to Kau. and Ind. 

 Aug.-Oct. Fig. 314. 



Var. inundata (Oakes) Fernald. Cyme loosely decom- 

 pound, the numerous rays wide-spreading or flexuous ; the spikelets solitary 

 or 2-6 in loose glomerules. {y2br. patula Chapm.) — Mass. to Fla. 



§ 2. Spikelets terete or biconvex, fevi-many-flowered ; style conspicuously 2- 

 cleft, its base only forming the tubercle of the mostly lenticular achene; 

 bristles usually present, merely rough or barbed-denticulate {rarely plu- 

 mose). 



* Achene transversely wrinkled; b?'istles mostly 6, upwardly denticulate. 



3. R. cymdsa Ell, Culm slender 0.3-1 m. high, triangidar ; 

 leaves linear (1-4 mm. v-ide); cymes corj^mbose, the brown spike- 

 lets crowded and clustered ; achene round-obovoid, faintly wrinkled, 

 twice the length of the bristles, four times the 

 length of the depressed-conical narrow tubercle. — 

 Low grounds, N. J., Pa., 111., and south w. June 

 Aug. (W. I.. S. A.) Fig. 315. 



4. R. compressa Carey. Similar ; culm rather 

 stout ; leaves pale and firm, 3-7 m^m. wide ; achene 

 strongly wrinkled, the tubercle with broad depressed thin-edged 

 base. — Ga. and Fla. to La., northw. in the low country to Mo. 

 •July. Fig. 316. 315. R. cymosa 



314. R. macrostachya. 



^1(). R. com- 

 pressa. 



