CTPERACE^. (sedge FAMILY.) 497 



a narrowed base, beaked with a slender conical-awl-shaped distinct tubercle, 

 which nearly equals the 6 bristles. (E. reclinata, Kunthl) — Wet slopes ; com- 

 mon northward. 



-n- ++ Bristles 2-4, shorter than the achenium and fragile, or none. 



9. £• tenuis, Schultes. Culms almost capillary, erect, sharply i-angidat 

 (1° high), the sides concave; spike elliptical, acvtish, 20 - 30-Jiowered (3" long) ; 

 scales ovate, obtuse, chestnut-purple with a broad scarions margin and green keel ; 

 achenium obovate, roughened with dose and fine projecting dots, croumed with a small 

 depressed' tubercle ; bristles 2-3, half the length of the achenium, or wanting. 

 (E. elliptica, Kunth I) — Wet meadows and bogs ; common. 



10. E. compressa, Snllivant. Culms flat, strongly striate, slender, 

 erect (Ij° high) ; spike ovaie-oblong, 20-SO-flowered (4" long) ; scales lanceolate- 

 ovate, acute, dark purple with broad white pellucid margins and summit, the latter 

 2-ckft; achenium dovate-pear-shaped, obtusely 3-angled, obscurdy tvrinlded-pitted, 

 crowned with a small globular-conical tubercle ; bristles none (rarely a single rudi- 

 ment). — Wet places, N. New York, Ohio, and Illinois. — Culms tufted on run- 

 ning rootstocks, J" broad, strikingly flat, spirally twisted in drying. 



11. E. melanocdrpa, Torn CUms ^ortened, grooved, wiry, erect (9' 

 -18' high) ; spike cylindrical-ovoid or pblong, thick, obtuse, densely many-flowered 

 (3" - 6" long) ; scales roundish-ovate, very obtuse, brownish with broad scarions 

 margins ; achenium smooth, dboeate-top-shaped, obtusely triangular, the broad summit 

 entirely covered like a lid by the flatly depressed tubercle, which is raised in the cen- 

 tre into a short abrupt triangular point; bristles 3 or 4, shorter than the (soon 

 blackish) achenium, fragile, often obsolete. — Wet sand, Plymouth, Massachu- 

 setts, to Virginia, and southward along the coast. Scales closely many-ranked, 

 as in the first division of § 2. 



12. E. tricostata, Torr. Cu/ms_;?a«!sS, thread-like (l°-2° high); spike 

 cylindrical-oblong, densely many-flowered (6"-9" long), thickish; scales ovate, 

 very obtuse, rusty brown, with broad scarions margins ; achenium obovate, with 3 

 prominent thickened angles, minutely rough-wrinkled, crowned with a short-conical 

 acute tubercle; bristles none. — Quaker Bridge, New Jersey (Knieskem),a.ni. 

 southward. 



H- ^- Spike lance-linear, scarcely broader than the sharply triangular culm: scales 

 fiw-ranked, greenish, finely several-nerved on the heeled back. 



13. E. Bobbinsii, Oakes. Flower-bearing culms exactly triangular, x&ihet 

 stout, erect (8' -2° high), also producing tufts of capillary abortive stems, like 

 fine leaves, which float in the water; sheath obliquely truncate ; scales of tho 

 pointed spike 3-9, convolute-clasping, lanceolate, obtuse, with scarious mar- 

 gins ; achenium oblong-obovate, 3-angular, minutely reticulated, about half the 

 length of the 6 downwardly-barbed strong bristles, tipped with a flattened awl- 

 shaped tubercle. — Shallow water, from Pondicherry Pond, New Hampshire 

 (Bobbins), to Rhode Island, Thurber, &c. — Spike vaiying from J' to 1' long, by 

 1" wide ; the long scales being rather remote and sheath-like. 



§3. CHLSlTOCYPifcllUS, Nees. — Scales of the compressed few - several-flowered 

 spike membranaceous, 2-3-ranked: hristles 3 - 6, fragile or fugacious : style 3-cleft, 

 adienium triangular or somewhat terete : culms small and capillary. 

 42* 



