SKIXJK FAMILY. 



85 



many-floweredj lanceolate, flattened, 4 to 8 lines long; rachilla not 

 winged, naked, or nearly so; bractlet 1 line long, amplexicaul, 

 broadly ovate, acute, 3-ncrved, keeled, not winged at the base; keel 

 serrulate on the back at the apex; stamen 1; style 3-cleft; achene 

 triangular. 



Healdsburg, Sept., 1896, Miss Alice King. 



4. C. erythrorhizos Muhl. Annual: stems 1 t" U ft. high, 

 stout, triangular; leaves flat or conduplicate, 6 to 14 in. long, 2 to 3 

 lines wide; involucral bracts 6 to 8, foliaceous, 4 to 12 in. long; rays 

 1£ in. long or less, bearing umbels of spikes which are h to 1 in. long; 

 bracts of involucels shorter, foliaceous; spikelets usually 2 to 3 lines 

 long, narrowly linear, somewhat crowded, horizontally spreading, 

 nearly flat, bright chestnut-color; rachilla clothed with the persistent 

 wings of the bractlets; bractlet \ \ lines long, oblong, obtuse, mucron- 

 ulate; keel smooth; style 3-cleft; achene triangular. 



Along the Lower Sacramento, Solano Co., Jepm)>; Visalia, 

 Covgdon. 



2. ELEOCHARIS K.Br. Spike-rush. 



Annuals or perennials. Stems simple, terminating in a solitary 

 spikelet not subtended by an involucre. Leaves reduced to sheaths or 

 the lowest rarely blade-bearing; spikelets several to many-flowered. 

 Bractlets concave, imbricated all around. Stamens 2 to 3 Bristles 3 

 to 9, commonly retrorsely barbed. Style usually 3-cleft and achene 

 3-angled, or 2-cleft and achene lenticular; base of the style enlarged 

 and persistent as a tubercle on the summit of the achene. (Greek 

 eleo-, marsh, charis, delight.) 



Stems setaceous; spikelet 1 to 3 lines long; style 3-cleft; achene obscurely 



triangular or. almost obovoid I. E. acicularis. 



Stems stoutish; spikelet 3 to 12 lines long; style 2-cleft; achene plano-convex. 



2. E. palustris. 



L E. acicularis R. Br. Slender Spike-rush. Rootstock very 

 slender, creeping; stems 1 to 8 in. high, very slender; spikelet 1 to 3 

 lines long, few-flowered; bractlets ovate-oblong, \\ lines long, 

 reddish-brown with broad green mid-vein; style deeply 3-cleft; achene 

 £ line long, obscurely triangular, ribbed on the sides; tubercle broad, 

 short and blunt. 



Moist places: Mountain Lake, San Francisco. Aug. 



2. E. palustris R. Br. Common Spike-rush. Perennial; root- 

 stock stout, creeping, stoloniferous; stems \ to 2 ft. high, slender, 

 mostly terete, sheathed at the base, leafless; sheaths sub-truncate; 

 spikelet many-flowered, 6 to 12 lines long, oblong-lanceolate to linear, 

 brown with broad whitish margin and greenish keel; style 2-cleft; 

 achene plano-convex, rounded but not at all angled on the back, 1 

 line long including the tubercle, which is constricted at the point of 

 junction. 



Common in marshes and shallow, slow-moving creeks: Glen Ellen, 

 Sonoma Co., Bioletti; Point Lobos, San Francisco; Lake San 

 Andreas. San Mateo Co.; Stege. May-June. 



