186 
GRAMINEAE 
2. S. californicus Britt. California Bulrush. Similar to no. 1 ; 
umbel irregular, looser, its rays more slender, up to 9.6 cni. long; spike- 
lets dark reddish-brown, cylindric or narrow-ovate, (6 or) 8 to 10 mm. 
long; bristles 2, 3 or 4. ribbon-shaped, dark red, conspicuously short- 
hairy or somewhat plumose.—Marshes throughout Cal. 
3. S. americanus Pers. Three Square. Stems 2.2 to 5.7 dm. high, 
very slender, triangular, somewhat leafy; leaves short, the blade 2.4 to 
7.2 or 18 cm. long; involucral bract solitary, pungent, 2.4 to 9.6 cm. long; 
spikelets 1 to 6, oblong-ovate, 6 to 14 mm. long, borne in a single crowded 
sessile cluster; achene flat on one face, convex on the other.—Marshy 
often brackish places, occasional throughout Cal. 
4. S. campestris Britt. Bull Tule. Stems 2.8 to 8.6 dm. high, stout, 
acutely triangular, the point of junction with the slender rootstock often 
enlarged into hard woody tubers; leaves equaling or exceeding the stem, 
keeled, flat or deeply channeled, 4 to 8 mm. wide; involucre of few 
unequal spreading foliaceous bracts 7.2 to 31 cm. long, one much the 
longer and more erect; inflorescence terminal, the spikelets in clusters of 
1 to 3, the clusters congested-capitate or commonly somewhat umbel¬ 
late with unequal rays; rays 6 to 36 mm. long; spikelets ovate or oblong- 
ovate, acute, 1.2 to 2 cm. long; achene round-obovate, sublenticular, dark 
brown, shining.—Salt marshes and moist alkaline soils. 
5. S. microcarpus Presl. Panicled Bulrush. Stems from stout 
creeping rootstocks, stout, triangular, leafy, 5.7 to 14.4 dm. high; leaves 
flat, 8 to 16 mm. wide; margins scabrid; involucre of several spreading 
foliaceous bracts, about 1 to 2 times as long as the inflorescence; spikelets 
1 to 5 in terminal and axillary clusters, the clusters in an umbellate 
compound panicle; panicle large and open; spikelets narrow-ovate, green¬ 
ish or lead-colored, 2 to 5 mm. long; bristles 4, barbed to the base; achene 
plano-convex.—Common along streams and in fresh-water marshes. 
3. CAREX L. Sedge 
Grass-like sedges, perennial by rootstocks. Stems mostly triangular. 
Leaves 3-ranked, the upper (bracts) elongate or short, and subtending 
the spikes of flowers or wanting. Flowers monoecious or sometimes 
dioecious. Spikes 1 to many, either wholly pistillate, wholly staminate or 
bisexual, sessile or peduncled. Perianth none. Stamens 3 (or rarely 2). 
Achene 3-angled, lenticular or plano-convex, completely enclosed by the 
sac-like perigynium. (The Latin name.)—The species in California 
number 126. They are too difficult for the beginner. (See Jepson, Flora 
of California, or Mackenzie, Monograph of the Genus Carex in Cali¬ 
fornia). 
GRAMINEAE. GRASS FAMILY* 
Herbs, commonly with hollow stems closed at the nodes. Leaves par¬ 
allel-veined, consisting of the sheath and the linear blade, with a mem¬ 
branous appendage (the ligule) at the summit of the sheath. Flowers 
*By A. S. Hitchcock and Agnes Chase, United States Bureau of Plant 
Industry; very much abbreviated and condensed from their account in Jepson’s 
Manual, with additions of the common crop plants and economic notes by W. L. 
Jepson. 
