WONOCOTYLEDONOUS OR ENDOQEXOUS PLAXTS. 687 



tary, separate or at the base of the sterile spike ; stamens 

 1-3; 5/^/6' 3-cleft ; iiiit globose or ovate, stony or bony. — ■ 

 Chiefly perennials, with creeping roofstocks, and triangular 

 leafy culms ; spikes clustered, lateral and terminal. 



§ ScLERiA proper, XiU supported by an annulai' or S-G lobed dink. 

 * Nuts reticulated ; disk of Z flattened loben ; stamens 2. 



S. LAXA, Torr. Culms weak, rough on the angles ; 

 leaves linear, obtuse; spikes separate, the axillary ones on 

 a long and drooping peduncle; nut globose, wrinkled and 

 somewhat hairy, obscurely pitted ; lobes of the disk ap- 

 pressed to the nut. (S. reticularis. Ell.) Damp pine-bar- 

 rens. Angust-October. Culms 1°-14° long; nut H"-2" 

 in diameter. 



** Nut warty ; disk bearing 3-6 globular lobes ; stamens 3. 



S. Elliottii. Ciflms stout {i°-'i° high), densely rough- 

 fringed on the angles throughout ; leaves 3-4, broadly 

 linear (2"-3" wide), closely fringed on the margins and 

 midrib beneath; sheaths pubescent; clusters 2, the lateral 

 one remote, on a short erect peduncle; sterile spike small, 

 few-flowTred ; nut globose, deeply wrinkled or pitted, and 

 with slender warty projections at the base ; lobes of the 

 disk 3, globose, 2-lobed. (S. hirtella. Ell., Michx. ? not of 

 Swartz.) Low pine-barrens. 



§ Hypo porum. Disk none; nut concave and often pitted at the sides of the triangular 



base. 



* Clusters of spikes (small) numerous, scattered near the summit of the culm, forming an 

 interrupted compound spike ; bracts mostly short. 



S. FILIFOKMIS, Swartz. Glaucous ; culms slender (l^°-2''' 

 high), smooth ; leaves narrowly linear, rough on the mar- 

 gins and keel, ciliate at the throat; clusters 3-4, erect, 

 few-flowered, the lowest remote, leafy- bracted ; scales lan- 

 ceolate, rough-pointed; stamens 3 ; nut obovate, obscurely 

 3-angled, smooth and glassy, concave at the base, not 

 pitted. October. 



