366 



CYPERACEvE. 



Cladium. 



Tribe VI. CLADIEJE. Nees. 



Floivers perfect {rarely diclinous). Spikelets 1 - 3 -flowered ; the scales imbricated in a 

 somewhat trifarious or quadrifarious order ; the lowest ones empty. Perigynium none. 

 Stamens 2-12. Style 2 - 3-cleft, deciduous, or sometimes with a persistent bulbous 

 base. Achenium with a hard thick shell, smooth or irregularly wrinkled, pointless, or 

 crowned with the persistent base of the style. — Spikelets cymose-paniculate. 



12. CLADIUM. Browne, Jam-, p. 114 ; R. Br. prodr. p. 236. TWIG-RUSH. 

 [ From the Greek, Irfados, a branch or twig ; but the allusion is not very apparent.] 



Spikelets 1 - 2-flowered. Scales few, imbricated in a somewhat trifarious order ; the lowest 

 ones empty- Bristles none. Stamens mostly 2. Style 2 - 3-cleft ; the divisions often bifid 

 or trifid. Achenium globose-ovoid ; the pericarp thickened and corky toward the summit 

 Seed smooth. — Culm leafy. Spikelets mostly in compound axillary and terminal panicles 

 or cymes. 



1. Cladium mariscoides, Torr. Smooth Twig-rush. 



Culm obscurely triangular ; leaves nearly smooth on the margin ; cymes compound, 2-4- 

 rayed, nearly naked, the rays elongated ; spikelets aggregated in heads of 3 - 8 together ; 

 style 3-cleft, the divisions entire. — Torr. Cyp. p. 372. C. triglomeratum, Kunth, enum. 2. 

 p. 304 (excluding all the synonymy but that of Nees).* Schcenus mariscoides, Muhl. gram, 

 p. 5 ; Torr. fl. 1. p. 54 ; Bigel. fl. Bost. p. 17 ; Beck, bot. p. 428. 



Culm about 2 feet high, scarcely angular, nearly smooth, about a line and a half in diameter 

 towards the base. Leaves 1-2 lines wide, channelled, with a long compressed point, slightly 

 serrulate-scabrous on the margin. Cymes 2-3, erect ; the lateral ones on long exserted 

 peduncles : primary rays 2-4, with several shorter ones. Spikes about 3 lines long, ovoid- 

 oblong when mature, often many of them abortive. Scales about 6, chestnut-brown ; the 4 

 lower ones usually empty ; the fifth bearing 2 stamens and an abortive ovary ; the uppermost 

 perfect, diandrous. Style filiform, deciduous ; the divisions nearly equal, or sometimes two 

 of them united towards the base. Achenium a little more than a line in length, ovoid, with a 

 short abrupt point, somewhat wrinkled longitudinally. 



Bog meadows and borders of ponds : frequent. Fl. July. Fr. August. Resembles C. 

 mariscus, R. Brown, in many respects ; but that species is much stouter, the leaves strongly 

 serrulate-scabrous on the margin and keel, and the cymes more numerous as well as more 

 compact. 



* Nees, by a mistake which he afterwards corrected, referred (in Linnaa, 9. p. 301) this plant, which he considered 

 Scleria triglomerata, to Cladium, and named it C. triglomeratum. This error has been strangely adopted by Kunth, who 

 remarks that he has seen a specimen of mine under the name of Sc. triglomerata. This specimen must have had the 

 wrong ticket attached to it by some accident. 



