North American Cyperacea. 279 
pressed, slightly mucronate, nerved, somewhat scarious on the margin; 
the two lowest much shorter than the others. Interior scales per- 
sistent, and forming a winged margin to the rachis. Stamens 3. Style 
3-parted. Nut flattened on the back, dull grayish brown. 
Hab. Boggy grounds, and also in dry soils ; common. 
New York! to Florida! and west to Arkansas! — August to 
October. 
(3. tenellus; culms cespitose, slender, heads ovate, small. 
Gray, Gram. &f Cyp, part 1. no. 77. (excl. syn.) Culms 4 inches to a 
foot high. 
Hab. Sandy places in the pine barrens of New Jersey ; 
common. 
y. cylindricus ; heads oblong, or cylindrical. 
Mariscus cylindricus, Elliott, sJc. p. 74; Schult. mant. 2. p. 143. 
M. umbellatus, Pursh! fl. 1. p. 59. (excl. syn.) 
M. neglectus, Schult. mant. 2. p. 144 (founded on Scirpus, no. 31. 
(without a name) Muhl. gram. p. 46.) 
Culms 2 foet or more in height. Umhel 5 — 7 rayed, the rays some- 
what erect. Heads or spikes varying from ovate to cylindrical, compact- 
Sjnkelets 3 — 4-flowered. Scales and nut as in the preceding variety. 
Hab. Sandy soils ; sometimes in wet situations. Common 
in the Southern States, as far south as Louisiana. 
Obs. I have removed the Mariscus ovularis of Vahl to this 
genus, because I cannot discover it to possess characters suffi- 
cient to distinguish it from many undoubted species of Cyperus. 
Indeed all the species of Mariscus which have fallen under my 
observation (with the exception, perhaps, of M. retrofractus) 
resemble, in the structure of their flowers, the plant above 
described. The 2 valves of the common calyx of Mariscus can 
only be regarded as short abortive scales, such as occur in 
Cyperus jlavescens, dentatus, articulatus, and many others. Little 
dependence can be placed on the number of florets in the spike- 
let, as there are six and even eight in the M. dilutus of N. ab 
Esenbeck. R. Brown {prodr. 1. p. 218) describes the spikelet 
as roundish (spicula teretiuscula), but this character exists in 
Vol. m. 36 
