72' Caricography. 



ifera solitaria pedunculata ; spicis fructiferis tristigmaticis 

 pedunculatis cylindraceis crassis pendulis, bracteis sub- 

 amplectentibus longe foliaceis subapproximatis ; squamis 

 setaceis ; fructibus obloagis acuminato-rostratis reflexis 

 triquetris nervosis bicuspidatis. Wahl. No. 117. 



This description, taken chiefly from Wahl., is applica- 

 ble to both the European and American specimens. No 

 difference between ours and the foreign specimens is ob- 

 servable, so far as I have compared them, except in 

 the length of the pistillate scale v/hich is shorter than 

 the fruit on the American plant. In other respects the 

 resemblance is complete. C pseudo-cyperus is readily 

 ascertained in its mature state. It has very little resem- 

 blance to our other speci<;s, and to none in Schk. except 

 C. recurva, Schk, the C. Forsteri ,Wah]. a native of New- 

 Zealand. Muh. remarked its resemblance to this species; 

 but besides other particulars, C. Fosteri always has stami- 

 nate florets at the base of the pistillate spikes. There is 

 no sufficient reason for considering our plant to be differ- 

 ent from the European C. pseudo-cyperus. 



The following are the general characters of our plant. 

 Culm 2 — 3 feet high, large, acutely triangular,, rough 

 and stiff, scabrous on the angles, leafy; leaves linear-lan- 

 ceolate, rough, striate and knotted, about the length of the 

 culm ; staminate spike single, (sometimes two according to 

 Muh.) long, rather slender, pedunculate, sometimes with 

 a bract ; staminate scale lanceolate, mucronate, and yel- 

 lowish ; stigmas 3 ; pistillate spikes, rather long and large, 

 close-fruited, cylindric, recurved, pendulous, rather near, 

 with filiform, scabrous, rather flattened peduncles ; sheaths 

 scarcely any, but long, large, leafy bracts much surpassing 

 the culm and rough ; fruit oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, 

 reflexed, nerved, glabrous, with a slender, widely forked 

 beak; pistillate scale lanceolate, mucronate, bristly, sca- 

 brous, and about two-thirds as long as the fruit ; plant gla- 

 brous, and of a yellowish green. 



Flowers in May — June, — grows in clusters on the bor- 

 ders of ponds, 



Muh. observes that the two upper pistillate spikes orig- 

 inate from the same bract, and Agardh has seen instances 

 of the same in Sweden; in all the specimens I have ob- 

 served here or seen from Europe, each spike has its own 

 bract. 



