Noi'th American Cyperacea. 293 
Obs. I have specimens of this plant which were sent to me 
by Mr. Elliott, but the inflorescence is not sufficiently advanced 
for comparing it with the preceding species and varieties. It 
appears, however, to be almost identical with my variety (3. 
3. FUIRENA SCIRPOIDEA, Mich. 
Rhizoma creeping ; culm furnished with leafless, subinflated, 
mucronate sheaths ; spikes (1 — 6,) ovate, terminal ; scales 
ovate, with a short appressed raucro ; bristles slender, scabrous, 
longer than the claws of the ovate, somewhat obtuse petals. 
Fuirena scirpoidea, Michx.! Jl. 1. p. 38. t. 7; Elliott, sk. 1. p. 54; 
Muhl.! gram. p. 51: VaJil, enum. p. 387; Ecem. Sf Schult. 2. p. 235; 
Spreng. syst. 1. p. 237. 
Vaginaria Richardi, Pers. syn. 1. p. 70 ; Pursh, Jl. p. 58, JSutt. gen. 
1. p. 37. 
Wiizoma creeping, scaly. Cuhn a foot and a half high, smooth and sub- 
terete swollen at the joints. Sheaths remote, never bearing leaves, but 
merely a short subulate point. SpiJces all terminal, often solitary, but some- 
times as many as six, 4 — 5 lines long, pubescent. Scales 3-nerA'ed, the 
nerves confluent at the summit, and terminating in a short straight point. 
Bristles straight, retrorsely scabrous. Petals with the claw longer than 
the lamina, 3-ner\'ed, purplish, thin and subdiaphanous except near the 
summit, which is cellular and tumid. Stamens 3, filaments much 
longer than the petals. Style compressed, dilated upward, 3-parted, 
the divisions glandular-pubescent. Nut acutely triangular, whitisb, 
stipitate, acuminated with the remains of the style. 
Hab. Swamps which are dry in summer. Florida, Mi- 
chmtx! ; Georgia, Dr. Baldwin! Sf Le Conte ! ; New Orleans, 
Dr. Ingalls! 
Obs. This interesting plant, as Michaux remarks, has the 
characters of a Fuirena, but its habit is different from that of 
the other species. In the structure of the flowers, it agrees 
minutely with F. squarrosa, especially the variety which I have 
called aristulata (s.) In one instance, I found the style 3-cleft 
with one of the divisions again 3-parted. 
