SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 141 



A Preliminary Synopsis of the Southern California 



CyperaceaB.=' 



BY S. B PARISH. 



5. SCIRPUS, Linn. Sp. PL ^y—BulrvsIi. 



Annual or perennial herbs with leafy culms, or the leaves 

 reduced to basal sheaths. Spikelets terete, or obscurely flat- 

 tened, solitary capitate, spikate or umbellate, the florescence 

 subtended by a 1-several leaved involucre, or non-involucrate. 

 Scales spirally imbricated all around, usually all fertile, or 

 1-3 lower ones empty. Perianth of 1-6 bristles, or in some 

 species none ; stamens, 2-8 ; style 2-3-cleft, not enlarged at 

 the base, wholly deciduous, or the base persistent as a subu- 

 late tip to the achene.Achene 3-angled, lenticular, or plano- 

 convex. 



A genus of some 200 widely distributed species. 



KEY TO THE SPECIES. 

 Spikelet solitary. 

 Involucre wanting. 



Annuat; 2-5 cm. tall 1. S. nanus 



Perennial; 10-15 cm. tall 2. S. pauciflorus 



Involucral leaf promptly deciduous .3. S. cernuus 



Spikelets normally more than one; involucre persistent. 

 Culms 3-angied. 

 Principal involucral leaf pungent. 



Leaves 2-6, long and narrow 4. S. Americanus 



Leaves 0-2, short and broad 5. S. Olneyi 



Involucral leaves allfoliaceous. 

 Spikelets large, few, in a short-rayed umbel.. . 6. S. Pacificus 



Spikelets small, many, in a decompound umbel 



7. S. microcarpus 



Culms, terete, sheathed at base, tall. 



Umbel of a few short rays; bristles barbed. 8. S. lacustris 

 Umbel decompound, long-rayed ; bristles plumose . . , . 



9. S. Tatora 



* Spikelet solitary, termzfial; staviens j; style j-cteft; ackenes 

 J -angled; cnlms low, tufted. 



/ 1. Scirpus nanus, Spreng. Pug. 1 :1. Britton, Trans. N. Y. 

 Acad. 11:74. Britt. & Br. 111. Fl. 1:262. Eleocharis pyg'maea, 

 Torr. Ann. N. Y. Lye. 3 :315. Watson, Bot, Cal. 2 :221. 



Annual; culms filiform, flattened, grooved, leafless, erect, 

 2-5 cm. tall; spikelet ovoid-oblong, subacute, 3-8 flowered, 2-3 

 mm. long, bractless; scales ovate to lanceolate, 2 mm. long, 

 pale green, the lower obtuse, the upper subacute ; bristles 

 mostly 6, retrorsely barbed, larger than the achene, or want- 



* Continued from P. 86 (this volume} No 6, June, 190-1. 



