CYPERACE^E. (SEDGE FAMILY.) 533 



nials, with grass-like leaves. Spikes from the axils of scale-like or leaf-like bracts, 

 simple or compound. 



§ 1. VIGXEA. Stigmas two: nut lenticular, or more or less compressed. 



A. Spikes bearing both sterile and fertile flowers. 



* Spikes with the sterile and fertile flowers variously disposed. 



1. C. bromoides, Schk. Spikes 4-6, distinct, oblong-lanceolate, com- 

 pressed ; pcrigynia lanceolate, erect, finely nerved, ending in a long flat rough- 

 margined 2-cleft beak, longer than the ovate-lanceolate mucronate scale. — 

 Swamps and bogs, Florida, and northward. March and April. — Culms tufted, 

 weak and slender, 1° - 1^° high. Leaves narrowly linear. Spikes occasionally 

 wholly sterile or fertile. Perigynia somewhat 2-ranked. 



* * Sj)U:ps with the upper flowers sterile, the lower fertile. 



*~ Spikes indefinite, disposed in a close panicle. 



*■*■ Perigynia sessile. 



2. C. decomposita, MuhL Panicle long, drooping, the upper spike-like 

 branches densely clustered, the lower elongated, distinct, and spreading ; perigy- 

 nia obovate, biconvex, nerved, abruptly short-beaked, about the length of the 

 ovate pointed white-margined scale. — "Wet margins of ponds and streams, 

 Florida, and northward. May — Culms erect, stout, 2° -3° high. Panicle 

 4' - G' long. Bracts of the lower spikes bristle-form. Perigynia dark brown at 

 maturity. 



3. C. Vlllpinoidea, Michx. Panicle spike-like, erect ; clusters of spikes 

 8-12, short, oval, the upper ones densely crowded; perigynia small, ovate, 

 compressed, short-beaked, 2-cleft at the oriiice, faintly nerved at the broad base ; 

 scales yellowish, mucronate. (C. multiflora, MuhL) — Swamps, South Caro- 

 lina, and northward. May. — Culms l^°-2° high. Panicle 2' -3' long, cylin- 

 drical. Bracts of the lower spikes setaceous or leaf-like, often exceeding the 

 panicle. Pcrigynia yellowish at maturity. 



+■*■ ++ Perigynia short-stalked, truncate at the base. 



4. C. crtlS-COrvi, Shuttleworth. Panicle very large, the lower branches 

 long and distinct, the upper short and crowded; perigynia plano-convex, ovate, 

 strongly nerved, dilated at the base, tapering into a long and slender rough-edged 

 deeply 2-cleft beak, thrice the length of the ovate mucronate scale. — River- 

 swamps, West Florida, and westward. May. — Culms thick and spongy, sharp- 

 angled, and, like the broad {b'-\' wide) leaves, glaucous. Panicle 4'- 9' long, 

 oblong or spike-like. Perigynia widely spreading, brown at maturity. 



5. C. stipata, Muhl. Panicle oblong ; the short ovate branches densely 

 clustered ; perigynia ovate-lanceolate, strongly nerved, tapering into a stout 

 rough-edged erect-spreading 2-cleft beak, 2-3 times the length of the scale. — 

 Swamps, Florida to Mississippi, and northward. April and May. — Plant yel- 

 lowish. Culms l°-2°high, sharp-angled, thick and spongy. Leaves 4"- 9' 

 broad. 



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