CYPERACEAE (SEDGE FAMILY) 73 



scales five to eight, narrowly ovate, thin, appressed, striate, with 

 scarious margins ; usually the lowest two and the awl-like one at 

 the point of the spikelet are empty. The three-sided, oblong 

 achene is only about half the length of the scale. (Fig. 37.) 



Means of control 



Prevent seed production. Persistent, thorough, and late culti- 

 vation is necessary in order to hinder the development and dispersal 

 of seeds and to destroy the rootstocks. Partly ripened heads 

 should never be plowed under, but should be removed, either to 

 compost heap or bonfire. 



MEADOW RUSH 



Scirpus atrovirens, Muhl. 



Other English names: Club Rush, Dark-green Bulrush. 



Native. Perennial. Propagates by seeds 

 and by rootstocks. 



Time of bloom: June to July. 



Seed-time: July to August. 



Range: Nova Scotia to the Saskatchewan, 

 southward to Georgia and Missouri. 



Habitat : Wet meadows, marshes, and bor- 

 ders of streams. 



One of the most widely distributed of 

 its tribe and a bad weed in low grass- 

 lands, for it is worthless as fodder, either 

 green or dry. Culms smooth, obtusely 

 triangular, leafy, two to four feet tall. 

 Leaves pale green, a quarter-inch to a 

 half-inch wide, rough-edged, two or three 

 of the upper ones whorled and extending 

 above the flower cluster. Umbels com- 

 pound, the spikelets densely crowded in 

 capitate clusters of ten to thirty at the 

 ends of the branched rays ; scales greenish 

 brown, oblong-ovate, bristle-pointed ; sta- 

 mens three; style three-parted; perianth ^ 38. Meadow Rush 

 composed of six bristles, downwardly (Scirpus atrovirens) . x $. 



