SEDGE FAMILY. 



16. Scirpus Californicus (C. A. Meyer i Hritton. 



(Fig. 624.) 



Elytrospermum Californicum C. A. Meyer, Mem. 



Acad. St. Petersb. (V.) i: 201. pi. 2. 1831. 

 Scirpus Talora Kunth, Enum. 2: 166. 1837. 

 Scirpus Californicus Britton, Trans. N. Y. Acad. Sci. 



ii : 79. 1892. 



Perennial, similar to the preceding species, the 

 leaves reduced to basal sheaths. Involucral leaf 

 very short, stoutly subulate, umbel compound; 

 spikelets $"-$" long, acute, peduncled or some of 

 them sessile; scales brown, ovate, awn-pointed by 

 the excurrent mid vein; bristles shorter than or 

 equalling the achene, short-plumose below; sta- 

 mens 2-3; style 2-cleft; achene obovate, plano-con- 

 vex, nearly white, narrowed above into a short 

 point, contracted at the base, its surface finely cel- 

 lular-reticulated. 



In swamps, Florida to Louisiana, New Mexico ami 

 California, and widely distributed in tropical America. 

 Not certainly known within our area. June-Aug. 



Scirpus rufus (Huds.) Schrad. Red Clubrush. 



California Bulrush 



625.) 



Schoenus rufus Hud-. Fl AUK! Kl J, 15. 177^ 

 Scirpus rufus Schrad. !'! ' V 1806. 



Perennial by slender rooUtock*, culm* 

 smooth, slender, erect, somewhat conpraoed 

 15' tall. Leaves half -terete, smooth, shorter than 

 the culm, channeled, .S'-j' long, ICM th. 

 wide, the lowest reduced to bladelew hcrtha; 

 spikelets red-brown, few-flowered, narrowly ovoid- 

 oblong, subacute, about 3" long, erect in a termi- 

 nal 2-ranked spike ,V-i' I<>HK; involucral leaf M>H- 

 tary, erect, narrowly linear, equalling or loogrr 

 than the spike; scales lanceolate, acute, l-nerwd; 

 bristles 3-6, upwardly barbed, shorter than the 

 achene, deciduous; staim-iis ;; st\lc 2-cleft; achene 

 oblong, pointed at both ends, light brown, plano- 

 convex or slightly angled in front, I #''-" *> . 



In marshes, New Brunswick am! yurfirc t..thr North- 

 west Territory. Also in northern 



18. Scirpus campestris Britton. Prairie Bulrush. i 626." 



Perennial by slender rootstocks, culm slender, 

 smooth, sharply triangular, i-2 tall. Leaves 

 usually pale green, smooth, shorter than or over- 

 topping the culm, i // -2 // wide, those of the invo- 

 lucre 2 or 3, the longer much exceeding the inflor- 

 escence; spikelets 3-10 in a dense terminal simple 

 head, oblong-cylindric, mostly acute, 8"-i2" long, 

 2) // -4 // in diameter; scales ovate, membranous, 

 puberulent or glabrous, pale brown, 2-toothed at 

 the apex, the midvein excurrent into an ascending 

 or spreading awn about i" long; bristles 1-3, much 

 shorter than the achene or none; style 2-cleft 

 (sometimes 3-cleft?); achene lenticular, obovate or 

 oblong-ovate, mucronulate, yellow-brown, its sur- 

 face strongly cellular-reticulated. 



On wet prairies and plains, Manitoba and Minnesota 

 to Nebraska, Kansas and Mexico, west to Nevad 

 May-Aug. 



