262 PATAGONIAN EXPEDITIONS I BOTANY. 



rays unequal, i, rarely 2- or 3-headed, the heads globose, many-spicate ; 

 the spikes ovate ; scales carinate-navicular, 3-nerved, brownish. Achene 

 trigonal-obovate. 



(Brazil, etc.); N. Patagon. 



7. S. MARITIMUS Linn. 



Root creeping. Culm stout, 30-90 cm. tall, trigonal, erect, glabrous or 

 scabrous on the angles upwards, leafy below. Leaves flat, linear, as long 

 as the culm, rough-edged. Involucre 3-4-leaved, i or 2 leaves longer 

 than the others. Umbel simple, few-rayed, the rays unequal or all short. 

 Spikes oblong, 6- 1 8 mm. by 4-6 mm., many-flowered. Scales ovate, api- 

 cally bifid, acuminate, mid-nerve excurrent-awned, brown-rusty. Achene 

 obovate plano-convex, finely tuberculate. Setce 2-6, short, retrorsely 

 spinulose, or none. 



(Cosmopolitan); N. Patagon., "common at Tuy and elsewhere. Some- 

 times used for thatching." (J. Ball.) At Rio Chico de la Sta. Cruz, by 

 J. B. Hatcher; in fruit, March 24, 1897. 



8. S. NEVADENSIS S. Wats. 



Stems clustered from a running rootstock, 30-60 cm. high, slender, 

 leafy at base, somewhat flattened above. Leaves nearly as long, chan- 

 neled or revolute, rough on margin, acute. Spikelets 1-8, ovate-oblong, 

 acute, 8-20 mm. long, in sessile clusters, subtended by a single, erect, 

 involucral leaf. Scales brown, shining, ovate, subcarinate, acutish. Setce 

 1-3, retrorsely barbed, not half as long as the broad-ovate, plano-convex, 

 acute achene, 2 mm. long. Style 2-cleft. 



(Nevada); S. Patagon., in wet salinas near Rio Chico. 



9. S. RETROFLEXUS Poir. (S, setaceus Nees non L., Heleocharis 



chcetaria R. & S.) 



Culm filiform, glaucous. Spike solitary, compressed, oval. Scales ob- 

 tuse, their margin thin-purplish, dorsally green-carinate ; the 2 lower sub- 

 equal, shorter than the spikelet. Setce 6, brownish, 2 of them shorter than 

 the obovate, trigonal achene, which is punctate-striate, with rostrum 

 dilated. 



(East Indies); N. Patagon. 



