Chapter L: TIGRINUM, Ker. (TIGER LILY.) Tall, pubescent above; leaves scattered, (3)

1. P. flavidulus, Kunth. Tufted, stemless; leaves bristle-awl-shaped (1' long); scapes very slender, simple, minutely pubescent (6--12' high), 5-angled; bracts of the involucre oblong, pale straw-color, those among the flowers mostly obsolete; perianth glabrous; sepals and petals of the fertile flowers linear-lanceolate, scarious-white.--Low pine-barrens, S. Va. to Fla.

3. LACHNOCAULON, Kunth. HAIRY PIPEWORT.

Flowers monoecious, etc., as in Eriocaulon. Calyx of 3 sepals. Corolla none! _Ster. Fl._ Stamens 3; filaments below coalescent into a club-shaped tube around the rudiment of a pistil, above separate and elongated; anthers 1-celled! _Fert. Fl._ Ovary 3-celled, surrounded by 3 tufts of hairs (in place of a corolla). Stigmas 3, two-cleft.--Leaves linear-sword-shaped, tufted. Scape slender, bearing a single head, 2--3-angled, hairy. (Name from [Greek: la/chnos], _wool_, and [Greek: kaulo/s], _stalk_.)

1. L. Michauxii, Kunth.--Low pine-barrens, Va. to Fla.

ORDER 128. CYPERACEAE. (SEDGE FAMILY.)

_Grass-like or rush-like herbs, with fibrous roots, mostly solid stems_ (culms), _closed sheaths, and spiked chiefly 3-androus flowers, one in the axil of each of the glume-like imbricated bracts _(scales, glumes)_, destitute of any perianth, or with hypogynous bristles or scales in its place; the 1-celled ovary with a single erect anatropous ovule, in fruit forming an achene._ Style 2-cleft with the fruit flattened or lenticular; or 3-cleft and fruit 3-angular. Embryo minute at the base of the somewhat floury albumen. Stem-leaves when present 3-ranked.--A large, widely diffused family.

I. Flowers all perfect, rarely some of them with stamens or pistal abortive; spikes all of one sort.

Tribe I. SCIRPEAE. Spikelets mostly many-flowered, with only 1 (rarely 2) of the lower scales empty.

[*] Scales of the spikelet strictly 2-ranked, conduplicate and keeled.

[+] Flowers destitute of bristles and of beak to the achene, inflorescence terminal.

1. Cyperus. Spikelets few--many-flowered, usually elongated or slender.

2. Kyllinga. Spikelets 1-flowered (but of 3 or 4 scales), glomerate in a sessile head.

[+][+] Flower furnished with bristles; achene beaked; inflorescence axillary.

3. Dulichium. Spikelets 6--10-flowered, slender, clustered on an axillary peduncle.

[*][*] Scales of the several--many-flowered spikelet imbricated all round (subdistichous in n. 5).

[+] Achene crowned with the bulbous persistent base of the style (usually deciduous in n. 7); flowers without inner scales (bractlets).

[++] Hypogynous bristles (perianth) generally present; culm naked.

4. Eleocharis. Spikelets solitary, terminating the culm. Stamens 3.

[++][++] Bristles always none; culm leafy.

5. Dichromena. Spikelets crowded into a leafy-involucrate head, laterally flattened, the scales more or less conduplicate and keeled. Many of the flowers imperfect or abortive.

6. Psilocarya. Spikelets in broad open cymes. Style almost wholly persistent.

7. Fimbristylis. Spikelets in an involucrate umbel. Culm leafy at base. Style usually wholly deciduous.

[+][+] Style not bulbous at base.

[++] Flowers without inner scales, but bristles generally present.

8. Scirpus. Spikelets solitary or clustered, or in a compound umbel, the stem often leafy at base and inflorescence involucrate. Barbed bristles 3--8 or none. Stamens mostly 3.

9. Eriophorum. As Scirpus, but the bristles naked, exserted and often silky in fruit. Stamens 1--3.

[++][++] Flower with one or more inner scales.

10. Fuirena. Scales of the spikelet awned below the apex. Flower surrounded by 3 stalked petal-like scales alternating with 3 bristles.

11. Hemicarpha. Flower with a single very minute hyaline scale next the axis of the spikelet; bristles none.

12. Lipocarpha. Flower enclosed by 2 inner scales, one next the axis, the other in front of the achene; bristles none.

Tribe II. RHYNCHOSPOREAE. Spikelets mostly 1--2-flowered, with 2--many of the lower scales empty.

13. Rhynchospora. Spikelets terete or flattish; scales convex, either loosely enwrapping or regularly imbricated. Achene crowned with a persistent tubercle or beak, and commonly surrounded by bristles.

14. Cladium. Spikelets terete, few-flowered, the scales, etc., as in the preceding. Achene destitute of tubercle. No bristles.

II. Flowers unisexual.

Tribe III. SCLERIEAE. Flowers monoecious; the staminate and pistillate in the same or in different clustered spikes. Achene naked, bony or crustaceous, supported on a hardened disk.

15. Sclerlia. Spikes few-flowered; lower scales empty. No bristles or inner scales.

Tribe IV. CARICEAE. Flowers monoecious in the same (androgynous) or in separate spikes or sometimes dioecious. Achene enclosed in a sac (_perigynium_).

16. Carex. Hypogynous bristle short and enclosed in the perigynium or none.

1. CYPERUS, Tourn. GALINGALE. (Pl. 1.)

Spikelets many--few-flowered, mostly flat, variously arranged, mostly in clusters or heads, which are commonly disposed in a simple or compound terminal umbel. Scales 2-ranked, conduplicate and keeled (their decurrent base below often forming margins or wings to the hollow of the joint of the axis next below), deciduous when old. Stamens 1--3. No bristles or inner scales. Style 2--3-cleft, deciduous. Achene lenticular or triangular, naked at the apex.--Culms mostly triangular, simple, leafy at base, and with one or more leaves at the summit, forming an involucre to the umbel or head. Peduncles or rays unequal, sheathed at base. All flowering in late summer or autumn. ([Greek: Ky/peiros], the ancient name.)

Sec. 1. PYCREUS. _Achene lenticular, the edge turned to the rhachis; spikelet flattened, many flowered; rhachis narrow, not winged. Annuals._

[*] _Umbel simple or capitate, rarely slightly compound._

1. C. flavescens, L. Culms 4--10' high, spikelets 5--8'' long; involucre 3-leaved, very unequal; spikelets becoming linear, obtuse, clustered on the 2--4 very short rays (peduncles); _scales obtuse, straw-yellow; stamens 3; achene shining, orbicular_, its superficial cells oblong.--Low grounds, N. Eng. to Mich., Ill., and southward. (Eu., etc.)

2. C. diandrus, Torr. (Pl. 1, fig. 1--4.) Spikelets lance-oblong (3--9''), scattered or clustered on the 2--5 very short or unequal rays; _scales rather obtuse, purple-brown_ on the margins or nearly all over; _stamens 2, or sometimes 3; achene dull, oblong-obovate_; otherwise much like the last.--Low grounds, common from the Atlantic to Minn., Ark., and N. Mex.--Var. CASTANEUS, Torr. Scales more firm and browner; with the type.

3. C. Nuttallii, Torr. Culms 4--12' high; spikelets lance-linear, acute and very flat (1/2--1' long), crowded on the few usually very short (or some of them distinct) rays; _scales oblong, yellowish-brown_, rather loose; _stamens 2; achene oblong-obovate, very blunt, dull_.--Mostly in salt or brackish marshes, along the coast from Mass. to the Gulf.

4. C. polystachyus, Rottb., var. leptostachyus, Boeckl. Culms very slender, 6--15' high; leaves and elongated involucre very narrow; spikelets few to many on the 4--8 rays, linear, acute, 2--9'' long; _scales thin, ovate, acute, closely imbricated, pale brown_; stamens 2; _achene linear-oblong or clavate, short-pointed, grayish and minutely pitted_. (C. microdontus, _Torr._)--Margins of ponds and streams, Va. to Fla. and Tex.

[*][*] _Umbel compound._

5. C. flavicomus, Vahl. Culm stout (1--3 deg. high); leaves of the involucre 3--5, very long; spikelets linear (4--9'' long), spiked and crowded on the whole length of the branches of the several-rayed umbel, spreading; _scales oval, very obtuse, yellowish and brownish, broadly scarious- (whitish-) margined; stamens 3; achene obovate, mucronate_, blackish.--Low grounds, Va. to Fla.

Sec. 2. CYPERUS proper. _Achene triangular; spikelets usually many-flowered, more or less flattened, with carinate scales, the rhachis marginless or nearly so (winged in n. 12)._

[*] _Stamen 1; spikelets short and small (11/2--5'' long) in globular heads, ovate or linear-oblong, many-flowered; achene oblong-obovate to linear._

[+] _Low annuals; involucre 2--3-leaved; heads few; scales pointed._

6. C. aristatus, Rottb. Dwarf (1--5' high); _spikelets chestnut-brown, oblong becoming linear_, 7--13-flowered, in 1--5 ovate heads (sessile and clustered, or short-peduncled); _scales nerved, tapering to a long recurved point_; achene oblong-obovate, obtuse. (C. inflexus, _Muhl._)--Sandy wet shores; common. Sweet-scented in drying.

7. C. acuminatus, Torr. Slender (3--12' high); _spikelets ovate, becoming oblong_, 16--30-flowered, _pale; scales obscurely 3-nerved, short-tipped_; achene oblong, pointed at both ends.--Low ground, Ill. and southwestward.

[+][+] _Tall perennial (1--4 deg. high); heads many, greenish; scales pointless._

8. C. calcaratus, Nees. Culm obtusely triangular; leaves and involucre very long, keeled; umbel compound, many-rayed; spikelets ovate (11/2'' long), in numerous small heads; achenes pale, linear, on a slender stipe; scales narrow, acutish, obscurely 3-nerved. (C. virens, _Gray_, in part; not _Michx._ C. Luzulae, var. umbellatus, _Britt._)--Wet places, Del. to Fla. and Tex.

[*][*] _Stamens 3 (2 in _C. fuscus_); spikelets clustered on the rays of a simple umbel (or in a single sessile head); scales mostly green or greenish and many-nerved, abruptly sharp-pointed; achene obovate, sharply triangular._

[+] _Low annuals._

9. C. Compressus, L. Culms 3--9' high, with a simple sessile or a few umbellate clusters of oblong to linear spikelets (15--30-flowered and 3--8'' long) with crowded strongly keeled and very acute pale scales.--Sterile fields along the coast, Md. to Fla. and Tex.; also adventive near Philadelphia.