WILD FLOWERS OF CALIFORNIA 135 



1842. Wood rush Luzula comosa 



Shaded spots — an early spring plant. 



1843. Small flowered luncoides pariflorum 



wood rush 

 In mountains of California. Found in meadows. 



1844. Spike wood-rush luncoides spicatum 



Widely distributed. Pacific coast states and in mountains of California. 

 Found at high elevation in the Sierras. 



PALM FAMILY PALMACEAE 



1845. Washington Palm Xcowashingtonia filifera 



Colorado Desert. In southern California. Confined to southwestern 

 California. 



SEDGE FAMILY CYPERACEAE 



A family much resembling the grasses and by many mistaken for them. 

 They are generally distinguished from grasses by the following : 



(a) The leaves are arranged in three rows up and down the stem, while 

 grasses have only two rows. 



(b) The sedges have closed sheaths. 



(c) The stems are solid and mostly triangular in cross-section. 



(d) The fruit of the sedges is an achene while in grasses it is a grain or 

 caryopsis. 



(e) Some members of the sedge family, like the spike rushes, Eleocharis, 

 have the leaves reduced to a sheath at the base of the stem. 



The large majority of the members of the sedge family grow in water or 

 mud by ponds, streams, lakes, or borders of snow banks in the high Sierras. A 

 few are dry land plants. 



In some parts of California in the region of lakes like Honey Lake, Goose 

 Lake, etc., when the water recedes during the summer large quantities of sedge 

 hay is cut and stacked. There is generally a mixture of water loving grasses 

 with them. They make very fair stock hay. 



1846. Galingales Cyperus 



They have triangular stems surmounted at the top by a cluster of greenish 

 or brownish flowers. The weedy nut-grasses, Cyperus esculentus and C. rotundus 

 are troublesome pests in the field. The former is the Chufa. The tubers or 

 "nuts" which form beneath the ground are prized in the south for hog feed. 

 C. erythrorhizos and C. mclanostachys, C. acuminatus, and C. laterxflorus are more 

 or less troublesome in tire rice fields. 



1847. Spike-rushes Eleocharis 



Slender reed-like plants without leaves growing very close together in shal- 

 low water. They can be recognized by the small brown tapering head which ter- 

 minates each stem. They make a soft, but rather poor quality of hay. 



1848. Bull-rushes Scirpus 



Tall bluish-green stems about the size of a lead pencil, everywhere occupying 

 immense areas in our marshes, particularly on the overflowed lands of the Sacra- 

 mento and San Joaquin rivers. Of little value for forage, commonly called tule. 



1849. Sedges Carcx 



Probably the genus Carex contains the largest number of species of any nlants 

 known. There are about 1000 in the world, and 400 in North America. California 

 has a good proportion of these and we find them in moist places where little drain- 

 age occurs during the year. The bogs of the high mountains nearly always con- 

 tain sedges and they are frequently found on peat lands in great abundance. 



None are in cultivation, but native hay frequently contains a considerable por- 

 tion of several different species of sedge. They are good feed, but not equal to the 

 best grasses although superior to many of the poor grasses. 



