566 CYPERACE^. (SEDGE FAMILY.) 



wool rusty or copper-color, only thrice the length of the scale ; stamen 1 . — Bogs 

 and low meadows : common. July, Aug. 



Var. album, with the wool white. — Oswego and Jefferson Counties, New 

 York, Dr. Crawe, A. H. Curtiss. 



4. E. polystachyon, L. Culm rigid (1°- 2° high), obscurely triangu- 

 lar ; leaves linear, flat, or barely channelled below, triangular at the point ; involucre 

 2-3-leaved; spikes several (4-12), on nodding peduncles, some of them elon- 

 gated in fruit; achenium obovate; wool white, very straight (1' long or more). 



— Var. angustif6lium (E. angustifolium, Roth, and of European botanists, 

 not of American, and the original E. polystachyon of L.) has smooth peduncles. 



— Var. latif6lium (E. latifolium, Hoppe, & E. polystachyon, Torr.,) has 

 rough peduncles, and sometimes broader and flatter leaves. — Both are common 

 in bogs, northward; often with the peduncles obscurely scabrous, indicating 

 that the species should be left as Linnaeus founded it. June, July. (Eu.) 



5. E. gracile, Koch. Culm slender (l°-2° high), rather triangular; 

 leaves slender, channelled-triangular, rough on the angles ; involucre short and scale- 

 like, mostly l-leaved ; peduncles rough or roughish-pubescent ; achenium ellipti- 

 cal-linear. (E. triquetrum, Hoppe. E. angustifolium, Torr.) — Cold bogs, 

 New England to Illinois, and northward. June - Aug. — Spikes 3-7, small, 

 when mature the copious white wool 6" -9" long. Scales brownish, several- 

 nerved; or in our plant, var. paucinervium, Engelm., mostly light chestnut- 

 color, and about 3-nerved. (Eu.) 



10. FIMBRISTYLIS, Vahl. (PI. 3.) 



Spikes several - many-flowered, terete ; the scales all florifcrous, regularly im- 

 bricated in several ranks. Perianth (bristles, &c.) none. Stamens 1-3. Style 

 2-3-cleft, often with a dilated or tumid base, which is deciduous (except in No. 

 4) from the apex of the naked lenticular or triangular achenium. Otherwise as 

 in Scirpus. — Culms leafy at the base. Spikes in our species umbelled, and the 

 involucre 2-3-leaved. (Name compounded of fimbria, a fringe, and stylus, the 

 style, which is fringed with hairs in the genuine species.) 

 § 1. FIMBRISTYLIS proper. Style 2-clefi,fiat and ciliate, falling away, base 



and all, from the lenticular achenium ; scales of the many-flowered spike closely 



imbricated. 



1. P. spadicea, Vahl., var. castanea. Culms (l°-2£°high) tufted 

 from a perennial root, rigid, as are the thread-form convolute-channelled leaves, 

 smooth ; spikes ovate-oblong becoming cylindrical, dark chestnut-color (2" 

 thick) ; stamens 2 or 3 ; achenium very minutely striate and obscurely reticulated. 

 (F. castanea, cylindrica, &c, Vahl.) — Salt marshes along the coast, New York 

 to Virginia, and southward. July -Sept. — Spikes less dark-colored and scales 

 mostly thinner than in the original Jamaica plant. 



2. P. laxa, Vahl. Culms slender (2'- 12' high) from an annual root, weak, 

 grooved and flattish ; leaves linear, fiat, ciliate-denticidate, glaucous, sometimes 

 hairy ; spikes ovate, acute (3" lon<j) ; stamen 1 ; achenium conspicuously 6 - 8-ribbed 

 on each side, and with finer cross lines. (F. Baldwiniana, Torr. F. brizoides, 

 Nees, &c.) — Low, mostly clayey soil, Penn. to Illinois and southward. July - 

 Sept. — Scales broader and less pointed than in F. annua. 



