284 North American Cyperacea. 
Hoot fibrous. Culm tumid at the base, 2 — 3 feet high, nearly leafless, 
pubescent, obtusely triangular, the sides very convex. Leaves mostly 
radical, half the length of the culm, 3 — 4 lines wide, flat, pubescent and 
somewhat glaucous. Rays 6 — 10, unequal, somewhat terete, 2 — 6 inches 
long. OchreeB bicuspidate. Involucre many-leaved ; 3 of the leaves 
broader and longer than the others, all of them generally shorter than 
the umbel. Heads nearly an inch long, and half an inch in diameter, 
very obtuse, obovate, or rather turbinate, the base acute. Spikelets very 
slender, and numerous, (about 100) ; uppermost ones spreading horizon- 
tally, the rest bent backwards against the peduncle. Scales generally 5 
in each spikelet, striate ; the two lowest (calyx, VaJil,) short, ovate, enipty; 
the fourth lanceolate, fertile ; the uppermost one subulate. Style 3-cleft. 
Nut linear, triquetrous, minutely papillose. 
Hab. Sandy soils, and sometimes in wet places; New 
York to Florida. In the pine barrens of New Jersey ! ; not 
common; Pennsylvania, Muhlenhcrg!; North Carolina, Mr. 
Curtis!; South Carolina, and Georgia, Elliott, Dr. Baldwin! ; 
Middle Florida, Dr. Chcqyman!; Alabama, Dr. Gates!; Ar- 
kansas, Nuttall. 
Obs. The spikelets, in their earliest state are merely 
spreading, but immediately after flowering they bend back- 
ward and are appressed to the common rachis, as in M. umhel- 
latus of the East Indies. 
KYLLINGIA, Rottb. 
Spikelets compressed, the scales distichously imbricated, 
usually bearing but one fertile flower. Scales generally 
4; the 2 lowest short and empty (rarely wanting), the others 
larger, for the most part only the lower one fertile. Stamens 
1 — 3. Style elongated, 2-cleft. Nut lenticular. — Culms 
triangular; spikelets collected in roundish sessile heads, which 
are solitary or aggregated ; involucrum mostly 3-leaved, folia- 
ceous. 
Kyllingia, Liivi.; Lam. ill. t. 38 ; Juss. gen. p. 27 ; Nutt. 
rren. 1. p. 30; R. Broum, podr. 1. p. 218; Roem. ^' Schult. 
gen. 188 ; Kunth, syn. 1. p. 143 ; N. ah Esenb. in Wight's 
contrih. p. 69, and in Li?inaa. 9. p. 286. 
