CYPERACEAE (SEDGE FAMILY) 



199 



14. RYNCHOSPORA Vahl. Beak Rcsh 



Spikelets panicled or variously clustered, ovate, globular, or spindle-shaped 

 terete, or sometimes flattish ; but the scales open or barely concave (not boat- 

 shaped nor keeled) ; the lower commonly loosely imbricated and empty, the 

 uppermost often subtending imperfect flowers. Perianth of bristles. Stamens 

 mostly 3, Achene lenticular, globular, or flat, crowned with a conspicuous 

 tubercle or beak consisting of the persistent indurated base or even of the f^reater 

 part of the style. — Chiefly perennials, with more or less 

 triangular and leafy culms ; the spikelets in terminal and 

 axillary clusters ; flowering in summer. (Name composed 

 of pi77xos, a snout, and airopd, a seed, from the beaked 

 achene.) 



§ 1. Spikelets lanceolate, acuminate, in fruit flattish, 

 cymose-panicled, of only one perfect and 1-4 staminate 

 flowers ; scales few ; bristles rigid, minutely scabrous 

 2ipward; style simple or barely 2-toothed, filiform 



and gradually thickened downward, in 



fruit persistent as an exserted slender 



awl-shaped upicardly roughened beak, 



several times longer than the smooth 



flat obovate achene ; coarse perennials ; 



spikelets in flower 1-1.5, in fruit {in- 

 cluding the projecting beak) 2-3 cm. 



R. corniculata. 



814. E. macrostachya. 



1. R. corniculata (Lam.) Gray. 

 (Horned Rush.) Culm 0.5-2 m, high; 



leaves 0.6-2 cm. ^\&q \ ctjmes decompound, diffuse; bristles 

 awl-shaped, stout, unequal, shorter than the achene. — Wet 

 places on the coastal plain, Del. and Pa. to Fla. and Tex., 

 locally north w. in the Miss. Basin to Mo., Ind., and O. 

 June-Sept. FiCx. 313. 



2. R, macrostachya Torr. Erect and rather stiff ; the 

 glomerules mostly of 10-50 spikelets, strongly ascending, 

 sessile or on few short rays; bristles capillary, twice the 

 length of the achene. — Borders of ponds. Mass, to Fla. and 

 Tex., locally north w. in the Miss. Basin to Kan. and Ind. 

 Aug.-Oct. Fig. 314. 



Var. inundata (Oakes) Fernald. Cyme loosely decom- 

 pound, the numerous rays wide-spreading or flexuous ; the spikelets solitary 

 or 2-6 in loose glomerules. {yax.patula Chapm.) — Mass. to Fla. 



§ 2. Spikelets terete or biconvex, few-many-flowered ; style conspicuously 2- 

 cleft, its base only forming the tubercle of the mostly lenticular achene; 

 bristles usually present, merely rough or barbed-denticulate {rarely plu- 

 mose). 



* Achene transversely wrinkled; bristles mostly 6, upwardly denticulate. 



3. R. cymdsa Ell. Culm slender 0.3-1 m. high, triangidar ; 

 leaves linear (1-4 mm. wide); cymes coiymbose, the brown spike- 

 lets crowded and clustered ; achene round-obovoid, faintlj' wrinkled, 

 twice the length of the bristles, four times the 

 length of the depressed-conical narrow tubercle. — 

 Low grounds, N. J., Pa., 111., and south w. June- 

 Aug. (W. L, S. A.) Fig. 315. 



4, R. compr^ssa Carey. Similar ; culm rather 

 stout ; leaves pale and firm, 3-7 mm. wide ; achene 

 strongly wrinkled, the tubercle with broad depressed thin-edged 

 base. — Ga. and Fla. to La., northw. in the low country to Mo. 

 July. Fig. 316. 815. E. cymosa. 



316. E. com 



pressa. 



