84 CYPERACEAE. 



chestnut colored or dark brown; bractlets thinly Bearious, Btrongly keeled, 1 > i fi <1 , 



with ;i short soon recurved nun from between the teeth; achene broadly obo- 

 vate, plano-convex or with ;i low ridge on the back, obtuse and slightly apicu- 

 late, dark brown, shining. — (-S. maritimus of Bot. Cal.) 



Common in brackish marshes along the const, and in moist alkaline soils in 

 the interior: Newark; Suisun Marshes. PI. May. Kr. Sept. Yar. COM- 

 PACTXJS Davy lias the spikelets congested into dense heads. — Btege. 



7. S. microcarpus Presl. Panicled Bulrush. Perennial; rootstock 

 stout, creeping; stem 2 to 3 ft. high, stout, leafy, triangular; leaves flat, 6 to 

 L2 lines wide; margins scabrid; involucre of several sub-equal spreading foli- 

 aceous bracts, about equaling the inflorescence; panicle decompound, large and 

 open; rays 1 to 6 in. long, the spikelets in terminal and axillary clusters; 

 spikelets l 1 /-? to 2 lines long, oblong-ovate, greenish or lead-colored; bristles 4, 

 barbed to the base; stamens 2; style bifid; achene % nne l° n g> pale, plano- 

 convex, not angled on the back, abruptly short-beaked. — (S. sylvaticus L. var. 

 digynus of Bot. Cal.) 



Common along streams and in fresh-water marshes: Berkeley; San Fran- 

 cisco; San Mateo Co.; Mt. Tamalpais; Guerneville. May-Oct. 



5. ERIOPHORUM L. Cotton-sedge. 

 Bog perennials. Stems from creeping rootstocks, triangular or subterete, 

 leafy or naked. Leaves linear or the uppermost reduced to sheaths. Spikelets 

 terminal on the stem, solitary or clustered or umbellate, subtended by an 

 involucre of scale-like bracts or none. Bractlets of the spikelet membrana- 

 ceous. Bristles numerous, filiform, silky, becoming greatly elongated in fruit. 

 Stamens 1 to 3. Style very slender and elongated, 3-cleft. Achene triangular. 

 (Creek erion, wool, phora, crop, referring to the woolly heads.) 



1. E. gracile Koch. Slender Cotton-sedge. Described by Watson as 

 having stems 1 to 2 ft. high, very slender, with one or more- erect, very narrow, 

 triangular leaves; involucre of 2 to 3 erect, brownish, ovate lanceolate bracts, 

 the lowest being sometimes partially foliaceous; rays 1 o in. or less long, 

 slightly nodding, tomentose-scabrous ; spikelets 2 to 5, oblong, 3 to 4 lines 

 long; bractlets ovate, obtuse, slate-colored or brownish; achene 1% lines long, 

 linear-oblong, broadest above. 



Reported as occurring in "swamps near Santa Eosa, " Bigelow. 



6. CAREX L. Sedge. 

 Perennial. Stems from rootstocks, triangular and commonly more or less 

 scabrous on the angles, the leaves in 3 ranks. Spikelets terminal and solitary, 



or with several below the terminal one in the axils or leafy <>r scale-like 

 bracts, either wholly pistillate and wholly staminate or with both pistillate 



and staminate (lowers which are occasionally dioecious. flowers in the axils 

 of scale like bractlets. Staminate (lower of 3 stamens. Pistillate* (lower con- 

 sisting i>\' a single pistil; ovary enclosed in an inflated brad or Bac (perigyni- 



iiui) contracted ;it the top through which project the 2 or ."» stigmas. Achene 



triangular, lenticular or plano-convex, completely enclosed in the perigynium. 



(Latin name used by Virgil for the sedge. 'The key to our species of this 



difficull genus has been adapted from L. II. Bailey's " Preliminary Synopsis 

 of North American <'arice^.'' For the briefly described vegetative characters 

 we have drawn largely from Boott's accounl of the Californian species.) 



