214 CYPERACE^. Cy2)erus. 



§ 1. Sti/le 2-cleft and nutlet lenticular, the edge turned to the rhachis : splkelet 

 Jiattened, many-fiotvered, the scales folded and sharply car mate : rhachis 

 narrow, not winged. — Pycreus, Turr. 



1. C. diandrus, Torr. Animal, witli librous roots, and very slender triangular 

 clustered stems |- to 2 feet high : leaves elongated, very narrow (rarely a line wide) : 

 involucre 2 - 3-leaved : spikelets in a sessile compound cluster or in loose clusters 

 upon the few short rays, linear-oblong, acute, 3 to G lines long : scales pale or Ijrown- 

 ish, thin and usually lax, rather obtuse, 1 to 1^ lines long, twice longer than the 

 light or dark brown oblong-ovate dull nutlet : stamens 2 or 3 : style elongated, often 

 cleft nearly to the base. 



Var. castaneus, Torr. Scales more firm and often brown : styles less elon- 

 gated, cleft to the middle, — C. castaneus, Bigel. C. tenellus, Presl, Eel. ILenk. 

 i. 176? C. rividaris, Kunth, Enum. ii. 6; Boeckeler, Linna^a, xxxv. 452. 



The variety only has been collected in California, in swami)S near San Francisco {Bolandcr) anil 

 in the valley of the Sacramento {Pickering), but both forms are common in the Atlantic States 

 and west to Texas and New Mexico. Nutlet rather longer and less pointed tlian in the eastern 

 forms. It is probable that the C compressus, as well as the C. tenellus, of Haenke's collection, 

 reported as found at Monterey, is to be referred to this species. 



§ 2. Style 2-cleft and nutlet plano-convex, fattened parallel zvith the rhachis: 

 spikelets flattened but thick, the concave scales scarcely carinate, and the 

 broad rhachis not winged. — Juncellus, Griseb. 



2. C. laevigatus, Linn. Perennial, with slender creeping rhizome : stems 

 numerous, slemler, 3 to 6 inclies high or more, terete, naked excepting 2 or 3 short 

 brown sheaths at base, of which the upper bears a short erect subtriangular leaf : in- 

 volucre of usually 2 bracts, one erect in continuation of the culm, the other very 

 short or wanting : spikelets 2 or 3 or more, sessile in an apparently lateral cluster, 

 linear-oblong, many-flowered, 2 or 3 lines long, obtuse or acutish, pale green or 

 sometimes brown : scales broad and concave, obtuse, scarcely nerved, nearly a line 

 long : rhachis deeply pitted transversely : stamens 3 : nutlet broadly obovate, | line 

 long. — Boeck. 1. c. 486. C. mucronatns, Eottb. 



At Los Angeles {Brewer) and at hot springs near San Bernardino, W. G. JFright. A widely 

 distributed species in warm regions, collected in Mexico by Hartweg, and found in Peru, the 

 Sandwich Islands, Australia, India, at the Cape of Good Hope, and in the Mediterranean region. 



§3. Style 8-cleft and nutlet triangular : spikelets viany-floioered, flattened with 

 carinate scales, the rhachis naked or very nearly so. — Ilucyperus. 



* A small annual: sjnkelets xvith acuminate scales, in a few dense heads: 



stamen solitary. 



3. C. aristatus, Kottb. Stems | to 6 inches high, about equalling the flat 

 leaves, with conspicuous involucres : spikelets linear-oblong, 2 to 5 lines long, in a 

 dense compound sessile head or in close clusters upon 2 or 3 usually short rays : 

 scales with strongly recurved setaceous tips, chestnut-brown, about a line long, twice 

 longer than the oblong-obovate obtuse apiculate brownish nutlet. — C. inflexiis, 

 Muhl. G. aureus, Presl, 1. c. 168. 



A common species throughout the State, from I^ower California to Oregon and across the con- 

 tinent ; it is also found in Mexico, Africa and the East Indies. 



C. ACUMINATUS, Torr., is somewhat taller and stouter (3 to 12 inches high), with fewer and 

 broader oblong-ovate straw-colored spikelets, and short-acuminate spreading or very slightly re- 

 curved scales : nutlet oblong-obovate, acutish at each end. A species of the Mississippi Valley, 

 from Illinois to Texas, which has been found in Oregon, Hall, Hoivell. 



* * Tall perennial: spikelets short, with green obtusish sp)readi)ig scales, in 



dense heads. 



4. C. virens, Michx. Stout, 1 to 4 feet higli : leaves and bracts of tlio involucre 

 very long, broad and strongly keeled : umbel compound, often much nnluccd and 



