cypbkus CYPERACE^E 687 



2 Dulichium Inflorescence axillary : perianth of 6-9 bristles : style 

 persistent. 



-*- *• Spikelets many-flowered, not flattened, the scales imbricated 

 all around. 



++ Styles not enlarged at base. 



3 Scirpus Spikelets solitary or clustered, or in a compound umbel, 



involucrate: perianth of few barbed persistent bristles or wanting. 



4 Kriophoruni Spikelets solitary or few, involucrate : perianth of numer- 



ous long silky naked bristles : stamens 1-3. 



5 Heuiicarpha Low annuals: spikelets solitary or few, in a sessile 



apparently lateral cluster: perianth a minute hyaline bractlet between 

 each flower and the rachis: stamen only one. 



+•■ •* Style enlarged at base. 



6 Eleocharis Spikelet solitary and terminal upon a leafless terete stem: 



perianth of 3-9 retrorsely barbed bristles, or wanting: stamens 3 : 

 base of the style persistent. 



7 Stenophyllus Low annuals, the stem leafy at base ; spikelets in an 



involucrate umbel: perianth none: stamens 1-3. 



* * Spikelets polygamous, few-flowered, ovoid, the scales imbricated 

 all around, only the terminal one fertile. 



8 Rhynchospora Stems leafy : spikelets variously clustered : perianth 



of 9-12 retrorsely barbed bristles: achenes lenticular, beaked by the 

 persistent base of the style. 



* * * Flowers monoecious, in the same or distinct spikelets, or 

 dioecious: pistillate flowers enclosed in an inflated sac like persistent 

 perigynium. 



9 Carex Spikelets solitary, spicate or panicled: perianth wholly want- 



ing, or of a single short bristle at the base of the ovary. 



1 CYPERUS L. Sp. 44. 



Perennial or annual herbs with mostly triangular nearly miked 

 simple stems, alternate nearly radical leaves and perfect flowers 

 in few- to many-flowered mostly flattened spikelets, the concave 

 more or less carinate scales in 2 ranks. Perianth wholly wanting. 

 Stamens 1-3. Style not thickened at base, 2-3-deft, deciduous. 

 Achenes lenticular or 3-angled, not beaked, smooth or nearly so. 



C. inflexus Muhl. Gram. 16. C. aristatus Bcrckl. in part. Annual : 

 stems slender or almost filiform, diffusely branched from the base, 1-6 inches 

 high: leaves a line wide or less, about equalling the stem: those of the involu- 

 lucre 2-3, exceeding the inflorescence: umbel sessile, 1-3-rayefL: spikelets 

 linear-oblong, 6-10-flowered, 2-3 lines long: scales bright brown, lanceolate, 

 rather firm, strongly several-nerved, tapering into a long recurved awn. fall- 

 ing from the rachis at maturity: stamens 1: style 3-cleft: rachis narrowly 

 winged, the wings persistent: achenes 3-angled, dull brown, narrowly obovoid 

 or oblong, obtuse, mucronulate. In wet sandy soil, California to British 

 Columbia and the Eastern States. 



C. acumiuatus Torr. & Hook. Ann. Lye, N. Y. iii, 435. Annual: 

 stems very slender, tufted, 2-15 inches high: leaves light green, usually less 

 than a line wide, often equalling the stem, those of the involucre much 

 elongated: umbel 1-4-rayed, simple, rays short: spikelets flat, ovate oblong, 



