CTPEKACE^. (SKDGE FAMILT.) 501 



meadows, &c., New England to Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Wisconsin, and north- 

 ward. July. (Eu.) 



12. S. polypllf^llus, Yahl. Culm, umbel, &c. as in the last; spikes 

 clustered in heads of 3 - 8, ovoid, becoming cylindrical with agp, yeUowish-hrown ; 

 bristles 6, usually twice bent, sofi-harbed touxirds the summit only, about twice the 

 length of the achenium. (S. exaltatus, PuraA. S. brunnens, J/u/i/.) — Swamps 

 and shady borders of ponds, W. New England to Illinois, and southward. July. 

 — Intermediate in character between the last and the next. 



§2. TRICHOPHORUM, Kichard. — Bristles capillary, tortuous and entangled, 

 naked, not barbed, much longer than the (triangular) achenium, when old projecting 

 beyond the rusty-colored scales. (Leaves, involucre, ^c. as in the last species.) 



13. S. lineatus, Michx. Culm triangular, leafy (l°-3°high); leaves 

 linear, flat, rather broad, rough on the margins ; umbels terminal and axillary, 

 loosely cyinose-panicled, drooping, the terminal with a 1 - 3-leaved invducre much 

 shorter than the long and slender rays ; spikes oblong, becoming cylindrical, on 

 thread-like drooping pedicels; bristles at maturity scarcely exceeding the ovate 

 groen-keeled and pointed scales ; achenium sharp-pointed. — Low grounds, W. 

 Now England to Wisconsin, and southward. July. 



14. S. Eridplioruin, Michx. (Wool-Gkass.) Culm nearly terete, 

 very leafy (2° -5° high) ; leaves narrowly linear, long, rigid, those of the invo- 

 lucre 3-5, longer than the decompound cymose-panicled umbel, the rays at length 

 drooping ; spikes exceedingly numerous, ovate, clustered, or the lateral pedi- 

 celled, woolly at maturity ; the rusty-colored bristles much longer than the pointless 

 scales; achenium shortrpointed. (Eriophorum cyperinum, L.) — Var. ctpebi- 

 Nus (S. cyperinus, Kunth) is the form with nearly all the spike conglomerate in 

 small heads. Var. lAxus (S. Eriophorum, Kunth) has the heads scattered, 

 the lateral ones long-pedicelled. Various intermediate forms occur, and the 

 umbel varies greatly in size. — Wet meadows and swamps ; common northward 

 and southward. July -Sept. 



7. ERIOPHORUM, L. Cotton-Gkass. 



Spikes many-flowered. Scales imbricated all round in several ranks. Peri- 

 anth woolly, of numerous (rarely 6) flat and delicate hair-like bristles much 

 longer than the scales, persistent and forming a silky or cotton-like usually white 

 tuft in fruit. Stamens 1-3. Style (3-cleft) and achenium as in Scirpus. Pe- 

 rennials. (Name from epioi/, uvol or cotton, and ^opa, bearing.) 

 # Bristles of the flower only 6, crisped, white ; spike single : small, involucre none. 



1. E. alpinuni, L. Culms slender, many in a row from a running 

 rootstock (6' -10' high), scabrous, naked: sheaths at the base awl-tipped. — 

 Cold peat-bogs. New England to Penn., Wisconsin, and far northward. May, 

 June. (Eu.) 



# * Bristles very numovus, long, not crisped, forming dense cottony heads in fruit, 

 ^- Culm bearing a single spike : involuav none : wool silvery white. 



2. E. vaginiltMlIJ, L. Culms in close tufts (1° high), leafy only at thd 



