CYPERACE^:. (SEDGE FAMILY.) 575 



*- - Perennials, with running rootstocks. 



9. E. Olivacea, Torr. (PI. 2, fig. 1 - 5.) Culms flattish, grooved, dif- 

 fusely tufted on slender matted rootstocks (2-4' high) ; spikelet ovate, acutish, 

 20 - 30-flowered ; scales ovate, obtuse, rather loosely imbricated (purple with a 

 green midrib and slightly scarious margins) ; achene obovate, dull, abruptly 

 beaked with a narrow tubercle, shorter than the 6-8 bristles. Wet, sandy 

 soil, Mass, to N. C., and western N. Y. 



10. E. pallistris, R. Br. Culms nearly terete, striate, 1-5 high ; spikelet 

 Monq -lanceolate, pointed, many-flowered ; scales ovate-oblong, loosely imbricated, 

 reddish-brown with a broad and translucent whitish margin and a greenish 

 keel, the upper acutish, the lowest rounded and often enlarged ; achene rather 

 narrowly obovate, somewhat shining, crowned with a short ovate or ovate-tri- 

 angular flattened tubercle, shorter than the usually 4 bristles. Very common, 

 either in water, when it is pretty stout and tall, or in wet grassy grounds, 

 when it is slender and lower. (Eu., Asia.) Var. GLAUCESCENS, Gray. Culms 

 slender or filiform ; tubercle narrower, acute, beak-like, sometimes half as long 

 as the achene. With the type. Var. CALVA, Gray. Bristles none ; tubercle 

 short, but narrower than in the type. Var. V^GENS, L. H. Bailey. Culms 

 very stout, rigid ; achene more broadly obovoid. Lake Champlain and along 

 the Great Lakes to Minn. 



* * Achene triangular or turgid; style 3-cleft 

 -- Bristles at least equalling the smooth achene, downwardly barbed, persistent. 



11. E. rostellata, Torr. Culms flattened and striate-grooved , wiry, erect 

 (1 -2-| high), the sterile ones reclining, rooting and proliferous from the apex 

 (1 - 2 high), the sheath transversely truncate ; spikelet spindle-shaped, 12 - 20- 

 flowered; scales ovate, obtuse (light-brown) ; achene obovate-triangular, nar- 

 rowed into the confluent pyramidal tubercle, which is overtopped by the 4-6 

 bristles. Marshes, N. Eng. to S. C., west to Mich, and Ky. 



12. E. intermedia, Schultes. Culms capillary, wiry, striate-grooved, 

 densely tufted from fibrous roots, diffusely spreading or reclining (6 - 12' long) ; 

 spikelet oblong-ovate, acutish, loosely 10- 20-Jlowered (2 -3" long) ; scales oblong, 

 obtuse, green-keeled, the sides purplish-brown: achene obovoid with a nar- 

 rowed base, beaked with a slender conical-awl-shaped distinct tubercle, which 

 nearly equals the 6 bristles. Wet slopes, Penn. to Iowa, north to Canada. 



13. E. Torreyana, Boeckl. Like the preceding, but more capillary and 

 heads smaller (l--2" long), sometimes proliferous, the one or more short new 

 culms from the axil of its lowest scale, which persists as an herbaceous bract ; 

 achene very much smaller, with sharper angles and a short conical tubercle, 

 which is hardly equalled by the 3-6 slender bristles. (E. microcarpa, var. fili- 

 culmis, Torr.) Wet pine-barrens, N. J. to Fla. 



!- -i- Bristles 2-4, shorter than the achene, slender and fragile, or none. 



14. E. t&HUis, Schultes. Culms almost capillary, erect from running root- 

 stocks, 4-angular and flattish (1 high), the sides concave ; spikelet elliptical, acut- 

 ish, 20 - 30-flowered (3" long) ; scales ovate, obtuse, chestnut-purple with a broad 

 scarious margin and green keel; achene obovate, roughish-ivrinkled, crowned 

 with a small depressed tubercle, persistent after the fall of the scales ; bristles 

 J as long as the achene or none, N. Scotia to N. C., Minn., and Mo. June. 



