342 



CYPERACEjE. 



Cyperus. 



8. Cyperus Grayi, Torr. (Plate CXXXV1II.) Gray's Galingale. 



Culm filiform, obtusely triangular, erect, tuberous at the base ; leaves setaceous ; umbel 

 4 - 6-rayed, somewhat erect ; sheaths of the rays truncate, pointless ; heads composed of 

 5-10 spikelets, loose ; spikelets linear-lanceolate, compressed, 5 - 7-flowered ; rachilla 

 winged ; scales ovate, rather obtuse when old, loosely imbricated, hardly scarious on the 

 margin; achenium obovate-triquetrous, abruptly mucronate. — Torr. Cyp. p 269. C. ma- 

 riscoides, var. setifohus, Torr. in Gray's Gram. Sf Cyp. part 1. no. 75. 



Rhizoma creeping. Culms 8-12 inches high, cespitose, tough and rigid. Leaves all 

 radical, channelled, scarcely half a line wide. Rays of the umbel 1 - 3 inches long, slightly 

 diverging, each bearing a small loose head of chestnut-colored spikelets. Leaflets of the 

 involucre setaceous. Spikelets 3-5 lines long, slightly convex. Scales strongly nerved, 

 not mucronate. Stamens 3. Style 3-cleft to the middle. Achenium two-thirds the length of 

 the scale, finely dotted in lines, gray. 



Barren sandy soils, Long Island. Fl. August. Fr. September - October. Nearly allied 

 to the preceding, but differs in its very slender culm and leaves, umbel of many rays, smaller 

 heads of few spikelets, and winged rachilla. 



9. Cyperus dentatus, Torr. Toothed Galingale. 



Rhizoma bearing tubers ; umbel compound ; the rays 4-7, somewhat erect ; spikelets 

 3 - 6 on each partial ray, clustered, ovate-oblong or ovate-lanceolate, ancipital, much com- 

 pressed, many- (6 - 30) flowered .; rachilla naked ; scales very acute or mucronate, carinate, 

 a little spreading at the tip ; nut depressed-obovate, triquetrous. — Torr. fl. 1. p. 61, <J- Gyp. 

 p. 271 ; Bigel. fl. Bost. p. 18 ; Beck, hot. p. 421 ; Kunih, enum. 2. p. 34. C. parvifiorus, 

 Muhl. gram. p. 19 (not of Vahl). C. micranthus, Schult. mant. 2. p. 121. 



Rhizoma creeping extensively, and bearing small roundish tubers. Culm 6-12 inches 

 high ; the angles rather obtuse. Leaves somewhat rigid, strongly keeled, pale yellowish 

 green. Rays of the umbel usually 1-2 inches long, but often very short : secondary rays 

 about half an inch long. Sheaths of the rays obliquely truncate. Spikelets 3-7 lines long, 

 varying from ovate to ovate-lanceolate or broadly linear. Scales closely imbricated, but distinct 

 at the tips, giving the edge of the spikelets a finely serrated appearance ; the sides of a bright 

 reddish brown ; the keel and part of the back green. Stamens 3. Style 3-cleft. Nut minute, 

 grayish brown, very obtuse, the breadth about two-thirds as great as the length. 



Sandy swamps, Long Island. Fl. August. Fr. September. A neat and very distinct 

 species. 



