North American Cypeiacea. 269 
truncate, pointless ; heads loose, composed of 6 — 9 spikelets ; 
spikelets linear-lanceolate, compressed, 5 — 7-flowered; rachis 
winged with the inner scales ; scales ovate, rather obtuse when 
old, somewhat distinct, hardly scarious on the margin ; nut 
obovate-triquetrous, with a short acuminate point. 
C. mariscoides, var. setifolius, Torr.f in Gray's Gram. 8f Cyp. parti, 
no. 75. 
Rhizoma creeping. Culms 8 — 12 inches high, growing in tufts, tough 
and wiry, tuberous at the base. Leaves all radical, channelled, scarcely 
half a line wide, shorter than the culm. Rays of the umbel almost ca- 
pillary, 2 — 3 inches long, slightly spreading, each bearing a loose head 
of chestnut-coloured spikelets. Involucre about 4-leaved ; 2 of the rays 
a little longer than the umbel ; all of them setaceous. Spikelets 4 — 5 
lines long, acute, at first slightly convex but flat when mature. Scales 
nerved, not mucronate, closely imbricated in the young spikelet, at 
length distinct at their tips. Interior scales lanceolate, persistent. Sta- 
mens 3. Style 3-cleft half-way down. Nut two-thirds the length of 
the scale, dotted, gray. 
Hab. Barren sandy fields. Common in the pine-region 
of New Jersey, — September. 
Obs. This species, although nearly allied to C.Jilicidmis, 
differs sufficiently in its still more filiform culm, setaceous 
leaves, umbel of many rays, and fewer-flowered spikelets, with 
the rachis winged. 
22. Cyperus formosus, Vahl. 
" Umbel compound ; spikelets capitate, ovate-lanceolate ; 
involucre about 6-leaved, very long, scabrous on the margin." 
C. formosus, Vahl. enum. 2. p. 327 ; Pursh, fl. 1. p. 51 ; Rcem. Sf 
Schult. syst. 2. p. 184. 
Culm as thick as a goosequill, acutely triangular, leafy at the base. 
Leaves linear. Involucels 2 — 3-leaved, shorter than the partial umbels. 
Ochres short, truncate. Rays of the umbel about 12, an inch and a half 
long, terete ; partial rays fewer, short. Spikelets about 8, half an inch 
long, 20 — 30-flowered, yellowish. Scales linear-lanceolate, acute, 
deciduous. — Vahl. 
