230 CLIII, NAIADACE (BENNETT). [ Cymodocea. 
6. C. rotundata, Aschers. d: Schweinf. in Sitzb. Ges. Naturf. Fr. 
Berl. 1870, 84. Near C. nodosa, Aschers., but differs in the leaves 
being 9—13-nerved, and the carpels strongly keeled, acute and dentate. 
Nile Land. Shore of the Red Sea near Suakin, Schweinfurth, 188! 
Also on the shores of Arabia and Madagascar. 
OrpvEer CLIV. ERIOCAULEZ. (By N. E. Brown.) 
Flowers very small, regular or irregular, unisexual, bracteate or 
ebracteate, very densely crowded into globose, hemispherical, oblong or 
campanulate heads. Calyx of 2-3 equal or unequal, free or variously 
connate, scarious or submembranous sepals, very rarely absent, often 
more or less hairy on the back near the apex, or ciliate. Corolla usually 
separated from the calyx by a distinct stipes, sometimes rudimentary, 
especially in the male flowers, rarely absent; petals 2-3, free or 
variously connate, equal or unequal, membranous and hyaline or mode- 
rately thick and opaque, with or without a gland on their inner face, 
often ciliate or hairy. Stamens equal in number to the petals and 
inserted upon them at or above their base, or 4 or 6 (or by abortion 
fewer) in two series, the one alternating with the petals, the other 
opposite to them ; filaments free, filiform or slightly flattened ; anthers 
small, dorsifixed, ovate, oblong or subquadrate, 1—2-celled, opening 
longitudinally. Staminodes in the female flowers rare, when present 
minute. Pistil in the male flowers very rudimentary, reduced to 2-3 
minute glands. Ovary of the female flowers superior, 2—3-celled ; style 
terminal, divided above into 3 simple or bifid, filiform branches, with 
or without three other branches or appendages alternating with them 
or arising from the style below them; ovules solitary in each cell, 
pendulous, orthotropous. Fruit a 2-3-celled capsule; cells opening 
longitudinally at the back. Seeds solitary in each cell, pendulous, 
ellipsoid or subglobose; testa thin, striate, reticulate or very minutely 
papillate-tuberculate; albumen firm 3 embryo minute, lenticular, seated 
at the apex of the albumen opposite the hilum.—Perennial or annual 
herbs, growing in water, Swamps, bogs, or on dry ground, stemless or 
with simple or branched leafy stems. Leaves linear or subulate, alter- 
nate, arranged in a dense or lax rosette or scattered along the stem. 
Peduncles one to many to a plant, each with a tubular sheath at the 
base, one- or rarely several-headed. Heads monecious, or rarely with 
the Sexes In separate heads. Involucral or outer bracts in 2 to several 
series, imbricate, sometimes radiating beyond the circumference of the 
flowering part of the head, membranous, scarious or rigid. Flowering- 
bracts solitary under each flower, variable in form, often hairy or ciliate 
at the apex, rarely absent. Receptacle flat, convex, subglobose or 
elongated, glabrous, pilose or villous, Flowers usually very numerous, 
very small or minute, pedicellate or sessile; the females usually in the 
outer part of the head, rarely central, sometimes irregularly inter- 
mingled with the male flowers, rarely separated in distinct heads. 
A very distinct order of 6 genera and about 360 species, distributed throughcut 
