SEDGE FAMILY. 85 



many-flowered, lanceolate, flattened, 4 to 8 lines long; rachilla not 

 winged, naked, or nearly so; bractlet 1 line long, amplexicaul, 

 broadly ovate, acute, 3-nerved, keeled, not winged at the base; keel 

 serrulate on the back at the apex; stamen 1; style 3-cleft; achene 

 triangular. 



Healdsburg, Sept., 1896, iliss Alice King. 



4 C. erythrorhizos Muhl. Annual; stems 1 to 1^ ft. high, 

 stout, triangular; leaves flat or conduplicate, 6 to 14 in. long, 2 to 3 

 lines wide; involucral bracts 6 to 8, foliaceous, 4 to 12 in. long; rays 

 IJ in. long or less, bearing umbels of spikes which are J to 1 in. long; 

 bracts of involueels shorter, foliaceous; spikelets usually 2 to 3 lines 

 long, narrowly linear, somewhat crowded, horizontally spreading, 

 nearly flat, bright chestnul^eolor; rachilla clothed with the persistent 

 wings of the bractlets; bractlet li lines long, oblong, obtuse, mucron- 

 ulate; keel smooth; style 3-cleft, achene triangular. 



Along the Lower Sacramento, Solano Co., Ji-pson; Visalia, 

 Congdmi. 



2. ELEOCHARIS E.Br. Spike-rtjsh. 



Annuals or perennials. Stems simple, terminating in a solitary 

 spikelet not subtended by an involucre. Leaves reduced to sheaths or 

 the lowest rarely blade-bearing; spikelets several to many-flowered. 

 Bractlets concave, imbricated all around. Stamens 2 to 3 Bristles 3 

 to 9, commonly retrorseh' barbed. Style usually 3-cleft and achene 

 3-angled, or 2-cl8ft and achene lenticular; base of the style enlarged 

 and persistent as a tubercle on the summit of the achene. (Greek 

 eleo-, marsh, charis, delight.) 



Stems setaceous; spikelet 1 to 3 lines long; style 3-cleft; acbene obscurely 



triaugnlar or almost obovnid \. E. aeimUaris. 



Stems stoutlsh ; spikelet 3 to 12 lines long; style 2-clefl: achene plano-convex. 



2. E. palustrw. 



1. E. acicularis K. Br. Slexdkk SpiKB-RrsH. Eootstock very 

 slender, creeping; stems 1 to 8 in. high, very slender; spikelet 1 to 3 

 lines long, few-flowered; bractlets ovate-oblong, IJ lines long, 

 reddish-brown with broad green mid-vein; style deeply 3-cleft; achene 

 ^ line long, obscurely triangular, ribbed on the sides; tubercle broad, 

 short and blunt. 



Jloist places: Mountain Lake, San Francisco. Aug. 



2. E. palustris R. Br. Commox Spike-rush. Perennial; root^ 

 stock stout, creeping, stoloniferous; stems J to 2 ft. high, slender, 

 mostly terete, sheathed at the base, leafless; sheaths sub-truncate; 

 spikolet many-flowered, 6 to 12 lines long, oblong-lanceolate to linear, 

 brown with broad whitish margin and greenish keel; style 2-cleft; 

 achene plano-convex, rounded but not at all angled on the back, 1 

 line long including the tubercle, which is constricted at the point of 

 junction. 



Common in marshes and shallow, slow-moving creeks: Glen Ellen, 

 Sonoma Co., Biolefti; Point Lobos, San Francisco; Lake San 

 Andreas, San Mateo Co.; Stege. May-June. 



