492 . PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 
Synopsis or Spectes.! 
* Bristles overtopping the body of the achene. 
+ Tubercle nearly or quite as broad as the achene. 
++ Heads from globose-ovate to ovate-oblong: scales brown, obtuse. 
H. optusa, Schultes. — Figs. 1 to 7.— Culms generally many, compat 
atively stout, erect or ascending, 1 to 5 dm. high: heads globose-ovoid to 
ovate-oblong, obtuse, densely-flowered, 3 to 13 mm. long, 3 to 5 mm. 
broad: scales obovate, obovate-oblong, or suborbicular, ascending, close- 
appressed, dull brown or rarely chestnut-brown with pale scarious blunt 
or rounded margins and comparatively pale broad midribs : achenes mostly 
cuneate-obovate; tubercle depressed, about a third as high as the body 
of the achene.— Mant. ii. 89; Torr. Ann. Lyc. Nat. Hist. N. Y. ul. 
302; Gray, Man. 522; &e. . ( Heleocharis) ovata, Bickeler, Linnea, 
xxxvi. 462, in part; C. B. Clarke, Jour. Bot. xxv. 268, in part; Wats. & 
Coulter in Gray, Man. ed. 6, 574; Britton, Jour. N. Y. Microsc. Soc. 
v. 102; Britton & Brown, Ill. Fl. i. 251, f. 584 (as to habital sketch) ; 
not R. Br. Scirpus obtusus, Willd. Enum. Hort. Berol. i. 76. S. cap- 
itatus, Walt. Fl. Car. 70; Pursh, Fl. i. 55; Ell. Sk. i. 775 Torr. Fi. 
v. & Midd. U.S. 45; and many other authors; not Willd. S. ovals 
Muhl. Cat. 6; Pursh, Fl. i. 54; not Roth. 8. elegantulus, Steud. Cyp- 
317.— A common plant in muddy or wet places nearly throughout easter 
North America, growing from Whycocozmah, Cape Breton (Macoun); 
Kent County, New Brunswick (Fowler), Piscataquis County, Maine 
(Fernald, no. 251), Ste. Clotilde, Quebec (St. Cyr), and Ottaw® 
Ontario (Macoun), to Minnesota ( Woods, Sandberg, no. 669, Taylor), 
Iowa (Butler, Fink), and Kansas (Norton, no. 545) southward to - 
Gulf of Mexico. Reappearing in the northwestern United States 4” 
British Columbia: Green River Hot Springs, Washington (Pipers 2 
6280); Clarke Co., Washington (Suksdorf, no. 2328) ; Pitt Rivet 
British Columbia (//i/7). Some northern specimens not otherwis? dis- 
tinguishable from typical Z. obtusa have.castaneous scales. 
Var. jejuna. — Figs. 13, 14. —Culms capillary, suberect or 8°} 
erally decumbent or spreading, 1 (rarely 2) dm. or less high: hea 
smaller, fewer-flowered, 2 to 5 mm. long: scales more spreading: achen® 
1 The number and character of the stamens have sometimes been give? promi 
_ nence in distinguishing species of Eleocharis. When the achenes are well gg 
however, the stamens are too often shrivelled or entirely gone, so that gh di 
ences found in them are hardly satisfactory criteria for determining speci¢s- 
