North American Cypcracca. 2b3 
The variety ^. is referred to this species with some hesita- 
tion. My specimen of it is not sufficiently mature to exhibit the 
character of the fruit. It resembles C. sjjcciosus, but wants the 
distinct foliaceous involucels. 
15. Cyperus stenolepis. 
Umbel simple; rays 3-4, elongated; ochreae truncate, point- 
less; spikes ovate; spikelets much crowded, spreading horizon- 
tally or somewhat reflexed, linear, compressed, 5 — 8-flowered, 
the florets distant and free nearly to their base ; rachis sub terete, 
slender, flexuous ; scales narrowly linear, nerved, involute to- 
wards the summit when old ; interior scales very narrow, adnate ; 
nut oblong-linear, triangular. 
C distans, Pursli,fi. 1. p. 53 ? (not o? Linn.) 
Culm about 3 feet high, triquetrous, rather slender. Leaves 12 — 18 
inches long, 2 — 3 lines wide. Umbel somewhat spreading ; rays 3 — 5 
inches long. Livolucre 3 — 4-leaved. Spikes nearly 2 inches long and an 
inch in diameter, composed of numerous (40 — 60) spikelets which spread 
on all sides. Spikelets 6 — 7 lines long. Scales very narrow, and in 
contact only at their base ; dusky yellow, the margins, particularly in the 
mature spikelet, involute. Interior scales hyaline, adnate to the rachis 
and the scale above. Stamens 3. Style 3-cleft one-third of its length. 
Nut scarcely one-third the length of the scale, acute, brown, covered 
with lines of elevated dots. 
Hab. Wilmington, North Carolina, Mr. Curtis! 
Obs. Nearly allied to C. strigosus, but easily distinguished 
by its loosely flowered spikelets and narrow scales. 
Dr. Baldwin in his MS. notes on Cyperus remarks that he 
has seen a species of this genus in Georgia, resembling C 
strigosus, but differing in its distant expanding florets. 
16. Cyperus speciosus, Vahl. 
Umbel compound, many-rayed, the rays distinctly alternate ; 
partial umbels shorter than the many-leaved involucels ; ochreae 
deeply 2-parted ; heads oblong ; spikelets spreading horizontally, 
6 — 8-flowered; scales oblong, obtuse, appressed. 
Vol. III. 34 
