Korlh Amcrwan Ci/ijcmccd. G31 
a. Culm 4 — 5 feet high, umbel very large, supradecom- 
pounded and proliferous, patulous, nodding, shorter than the 
involucre ; spikes all pedunculate ; nut ivhite. 
/3. Like the preceding, but the spikes aggregated 3 — o 
together at the extremity of the ultimate raysj 
y. With the characters of (a), but the nut brown. 
0. Culm slender, IS inches high; umbel contracted, some- 
what erect. 
f. Resembling the last, with the spikes all pedicellate. 
^. Umbel much crowded, somewhat capitate. 
ri. Umbel somewhat patulous, longer than the involucre, 
blackish at the base ; spikes oblong, pedicellate. 
Cubn nearly terete below, obtusely triangular above, leafy nearly to 
the summit. Leaves 1 — 2 feet long, flat, 2 — 4 lines wide, scabrous oti 
the margin; sheaths smooth, close, brownish and scarious at the throat. 
Involucre of 3 — 4 long leaves resembling those of the culm, and several 
shorter ones, their sheathing bases brownish or nearly black. JJinbel 
consisting of numerous primary rays, which are many times divided. 
Spikes 2 — 3 lines long, obtuse. Scales acute, of a ferruginous colour 
w^hen mature, with a green keel. Bristles, when extended, 8 — 10 times 
as long as the nut, brownish, completely covering the mature spike, 
gi\'ing it a woolly appearance. Starnens 3. Nut flat on the back, 
obtuse-angled in fruit, long, acuminated, dull. 
Hab. Borders of swamps and wet meadows; Hudson's 
Bay ! to the Gulf of Mexico ! and west to Kentucky ! 
Obs. This species varies much in size and in the appear- 
ance of its umbel, but the different forms which it assumes pass 
into one another so gradually, that it is extremely difficult to 
mark their limits. Along the sea coast, and a short distance in 
the interior the first two varieties are almost exclusively found, 
but they rarely occur far inland, while the remaining forms are 
never seen in the neighbourhood of salt water, nor, as far as my 
observations have extended, south of the Hudson and west of 
the Alleghany mountains. 
