70 Cyperaceae 



acute; scales brown, with a green midvein, blunt or subacute; 

 bristles 4, barbed nearly or quite to the base, somewhat longer 

 than the achene ; stamens 2 ; styles 2-cleft ; achene oblong- 

 obovate, nearly white, plano-convex or with a low ridge on the 

 back, pointed. 



Rather common in meadows and along streams in the pine belt of all 

 the mountains. Oak Knoll, near Pasadena, McClatchie. 



3. ELEOCHARIS R. Br. SPIKE-RUSH. 



Annual or perennial herbs, with simple, usually terete 

 stems, and leaves reduced to mere sheaths or the lower 

 rarely bearing a blade. Spikelets solitary, terminal, erect, 

 several-many-flowered, not subtended by an involucre. 

 Scales concave, spirally imbricated. Perianth of 1-12 

 usually retrorsely barbed bristles, or sometimes wanting. 

 Stamens 2-3. Styles 2-cleft and achene lenticular or 

 biconvex, or 3-cleft and achene more or less distinctly 

 3-angled. Base of the style persistent on the summit of 

 the achene, forming a terminal tubercle. 



1. E. palustris (L.) R. & S. Perennial by horizontal root- 

 stocks; stems stout, terete or nearly so, striate, 3-8 dm. high; 

 basal sheaths brown, rarely bearing a short blade, the upper one 

 obliquely truncate; spikelet ovoid-cylindric, 6-24 mm. long, 3-4 

 mm. broad, thicker than the stem ; scales ovate-oblong or ovate- 

 lanceolate, purplish-brown, with scarious margins and a green 

 midvein; bristles usually 4, slender, retrorsely barbed, longer 

 than the achene, sometimes wanting; stamens 2-3; style 2-3- 

 cleft; achene brownish or yellowish-brown, smooth, obovate; 

 tubercle conic-triangular, constricted at the base, flattened, K~K 

 as long as the achene. 



Common in wet places along streams throughout our range. May-August. 



2. E. acicularis (L.) R. & S. Perennial by filiform rootstocks 

 or stolons; stems filiform, tufted, obscurely 4-angled and groov- 

 ed, erect or spreading, 4-10 cm. long; sheaths truncate; spikelet 

 compressed, narrowly ovate, acute, 3-10-flowered, 3-6 mm. long, 

 1 mm. broad ; scales oblong, obtuse, thin, pale green, with a nar- 

 row band of brown on each side of the midvein, deciduous, many 

 usually sterile ; bristles 3-4, fugacious, shorter than the achene ; 



