SEDGE FAMILY. 



87 



1 line wide; bractlets obtuse or mucronate; bristles obsolete; achene 

 less than \ line long, trigonous-obovoid with distinct angles, apiculate, 

 not striate nor ribbed, dark brown when mature. 



Not uncommon in springy places: Point Lobos, Greene, Davy; 

 bluffs near Lake Merced, Greene; near Olema, Davy. June-Aug. 



2. S. carinatus Gray. Dwarf Club-rush. Annual; stems 

 slender, triangular, 1 to 4 in. high, with a short leaf at base; invo- 

 lucral bract 5 to 6 lines long; spikelet solitary, ovate, 2 to 3 lines 

 long, mostly 1£ lines wide; bractlet acute, shortly beaked, strongly 

 keeled; bristles obsolete. 



Reported as abundant in swamps about San Francisco, Bolander; 

 Santa Rosa Creek, Bigelow. 



3. S. lacustris L. var. occidentalis Wats. Tule. Perennial; 

 rootstock stout, creeping; stems 3 to 9 ft. high, terete or very 

 obtusely trigonous above, leafless or with a short terete leaf from 

 the upper basal sheath; inflorescence apparently lateral, umbellate, 

 4 to 5 in. long; involucral bract stout, shorter than the inflorescence; 

 spikelets 3 lines long, numerous, in an irregularly compressed umbel; 

 rays unequal; bristles 4 to 6, slender, retro rsely barbellate, not 

 exserted; style 2-fid; achene gray, abruptly mucronate. 



Common in brackish and fresh-water marshes throughout the 

 State: Lake Merced; Martinez; Suisun Marshes, etc. The closely 

 allied species S. Californicus (C. A. Mey.) Britt., (S. Tatora Kunth), 

 having the bristles shortly plumose below and with a nearly white 

 achene, narrowed above, should be looked for. 



4. S. Olneyi Gray. Olxey's Bulrush. Perennial; stems 2 to 5 

 or more ft. high, stout, triquetrous, continued as an entire involucre 

 about 1 in. or less beyond the inflorescence, sheathed at base, leafless 

 or with a single short, triquetrous leaf; inflorescence apparently 

 lateral; spikelets 2 to many in a crowded sessile cluster, oblong- 

 ovate, about 2 lines long; bractlets brown. 



Common in brackish marshes from Suisun Bay southward: Newark; 

 Suisun Marshes; reported also from San Francisco. May. 



5. S. Americanus Pers. Three Square. Perennial; stem 1 to 



2 ft. high, slender, triangular, somewhat leafy, continued as an entire, 

 triangular, pungent involucre 1 to 4 in. beyond the inflorescence; 

 leaves short; inflorescence apparently lateral; spikelets 1 to 6, in a 

 crowded, sessile cluster, oblong-ovate, 3 to 4 lines long; bractlets 

 dark brown, usually conspicuously tipped with a stout, pale-colored 

 awn about a line long. — (S. pungens Vahl.) 



Marshy places, often brackish: Point Lobos, San Francisco, south- 

 ward and eastward. 



6. S. robustus Pursh. Salt-marsh Bulrush. Perennial; root- 

 stock stout, often forming hard woody tubers; stems 1 to 3 ft. high, 

 stout, trigonous; leaves equaling or exceeding the stem, keeled, flat 

 or deeply channeled, 2 to 4 lines wide, antrorsely scabrid on the 

 margins and keel; involucre of several unequal spreading foliaceous 

 bracts 1 to 8 in. long, one much the longer and more erect; inflores- 



