686 JUNCACE,E jn NC us 



ligules.: heads panicled few-flowered: perianth-segments straw-color, lan- 

 ceolate, acuminate, scarious-margined, rough, 3 lines long: stamens 6: 

 caqsule triangular, oblong, acute, short-beaked. Common along streams, 

 eastern Washington. 



-i- +- Stems compressed and usually acutely edged : leaves flattened 

 latterally and equitant. 



J. ensifolius Wiks. Stems 8-20 inches high, leafy, from thick root- 

 stocks: leaves equitant: heads several to numerous, panicled, globose, 

 usually dark brown : perianth-segments lanceolate, acuminate Y% lines 

 long: stamens 3: capsule 3-angled, acute, hardly exceeding the perianth. 

 Common in wet places Brit. Columbia to California. 



J. xiphioides Meyer 1. c. Stems rather stout, 1-4 feet high, from stout 

 creeping rootstocks : leaves 2-3 lines wide, the sheaths without ligules : 

 heads few to numerous, dense, 3-20-flowered, in a compound panicle: peri- 

 anth-segments brownish to almost black, \% lines long, lanceolate, acu- 

 minate: stamens 6; anthers very small oblong-linear, equalling or much 

 shorter than the filaments : capsule oblong, acute, about equalling the 

 perianth : seeds very small, ovate-oblanceolate. A variable species : in wet 

 places, California to Alaska. 



J. oxymeris Engelm. 1. c. 483. Stems stout, 2-4 feet high : leaves 2-3 

 lines wide: panicle decompound, 4-8 inches long: heads small, very num- 

 erous, 3-12-flowered : perianth-segments linear-lanceolate, acuminate-awn- 

 ed, about 2 lines long : stamens 6 ; anthers twice as long as the filaments : 

 capsule lanceolate, rostrate, longer than the perianth, 1-celled : seeds ovate- 

 oblanceolate, )4 line long. In marshes, southern Oregon to California. 



J. Mertensianus Bong. Veg. Sitch. 167. Stems weak, 6-18 inches 

 high, from matted rootstocks: leaves usually about a line wide; ligule 

 conspicuous : inflorescence usually a single many-flowered head, 4-6 lines 

 in diameter: perianth-segments very dark brown, ovate-lanceolate, the 

 outer ones aristate-acuminate : stamens 6 ; anthers usually mucronate, as 

 long or shorter than the filaments: capsule obovate, obtuse, about equal, 

 equalling the perianth: seeds oblanceolate, apiculate at each end. In wet 

 meadows on the highest mountains, California to Alaska and the Rocky 

 Mountains. 



Order CVIII CYPERACE^ J. St. Hil. Expos. Fam. i, 62. 



Perennial or annual herbs with rhizomatous rootstocks, tri- 

 angular or terete mostly solid stems, alternate mostly radical 

 leaves and small perfect, monoecious or dioecious flowers in the 

 axils of imbricated glumaceous bracts or scales. Perianth none 

 or represented by bristles or scales. Stamens usually 2 or 3, 

 hypogynous, with basifixed anthers. Ovary 1-celled, with- an 

 erect anatropous ovule and a 2-3-cleft style, in fruit a lenticular 

 or more or less triangular membranaceous, crustaceous or bony 

 achene. Embryo minute, lenticular or turgid, at the base of 

 copious albumen. 



* Flowers of the spikelets all or at least one of them perfect : spike- 

 lets all alike, few- to many-flowered, capitate or umbellate, one or two 

 of the lower scales usually sterile. 



*■ Spikelets more or less flattened, the scales being in two ranks : 

 inflorescence involucrate. 



1 Cyperus Inflorescence spicate or clustered: perianth none: style 

 persistent. 



