250 North American Cyperacece. 
1 — 8, 1830) has, in our opinion, clearly shown that the charac- 
ters usually assigned to Papyru?, are insufficient for removing 
that genus from Cyperus. This excellent botanist, however, 
considers the "interior scales" of N. ab Esenbeck, as append- 
ages of the glume immediately above them on the opposite side 
of the rachis, from which they proceed obliquely downward, and 
are inserted on each side of the rachis a. ihe base of the sub- 
jacent glume, the stamens and ovary of which they closely 
embrace. In most of our species of Cyperus these scales or 
appendages can be more or less distinctly seen, and it must be 
allowed that they appear to constitute a part of the glume above 
them ; but it may be doubted whether they are not m;re winged 
margins of the rachis, (from which they sonietimes split off, as in 
C. erythrorhizos,) rather than inner scales or bracteas cohering 
with the rachis. 
§ 1. Style 2-cleft ; nut compressed-lenticular, Pycreus, 
1. Cyperus flavescens, Linn,, 
Umbel of 2 — 4 short rays ; spikelets linear, 14' — 20-flowered, 
rather obtuse, fasciculate and solitary on the common rachis ; 
flowers triandrous ; scales obtuse, one-nerved ; nut minutely 
wrinkled transversely, suborbicular, slightly mucronate, shin- 
ing. 
C. flavescens, Linn. sp. 1. p. 68; Muhl.! gram. p. 16; Elliott, sk. 
1. p. 67? ; Torr.! fl. 1. p. 60; Big. ! fl. Bast. ed. 2. p. IS ; Beckf 
hot. p. 421 ; Willd. sp. I. p. 279 ; Rcem. SfSchult. syst. 2. p. 191 ; Spreng. 
syst. 1. p. 223. 
Perennial. Culm 4 — 10 inches high, triquetrous, leafy near the base. 
Leaves about a line and a half broad, as tall as the culm. Involucral 
leaves 3, spreading thrice as long as the umbel. Rays of the vmhel 
often very short, so that the spikes appear fasciculate ; the longer ones 
«eldom more than an inch in leneth, each bearing from 4 to 10 spike- 
lets, which are crowded mostly in fascicles of 3 — 4 on the common rachis. 
Spikes half an inch or more in length, slightly tapering towards the sum- 
mit, wliich is rather obtuse than acute, of a yellowish colour, sometimes 
30-flowered. Scales broadly ovate, thin and membranaceous except on 
