Eriocaulon. | CLIV. ERIOCAULEE (BROWN). 231 
the warmer regions of both hemispheres, most numerous in Tropical America, very 
few in the temperate regions. 
The species of this order are often very difficult to discriminate on account 
of their great similarity and minute floral structure. For dissection, however, the 
dried flower-heads do not require to be boiled, since if placed in a drop of cold water 
they absorb it with very great rapidity and are immediately ready for dissection, but 
they require to be examined under a lens of high power. The structure of the 
flowers and sometimes the hairs on the sepals are best seen if examined in water, but 
the hairs on the receptacle and on the flowering bracts are best seen when in a dry 
state, especially when the hairs on the latter are very fine and not of the more usual 
stout, opaque-white type. The shape of the peduncle is described as seen in thin 
transverse sections in water, where, by a little manipulation, it may easily be made to 
assume its original outline, which cannot be correctly determined otherwise. 
Stamens twice as many as the petals, 4 or 6, or fewer 
by abortion, in two alternating series. Style- 
branches 8, without alternating appendages. (See 
also Pepalanthus Welwitschii, in which the alter- 
nating non-stigmatic appendages are absent.) 
Petals free, sometimes rudimentary, rarely absent . 1. ERIOCAULON. 
Petals connate into a tube, but with free claws in the 
female flowers Bee ee ge . 2. MESANTHEMUM. 
Stamens equal in number to the petals and opposite to 
them, in one series. Style-branches 6, 3 of them 
stigmatose, simple or bifid, and 3 others alter- 
nating with them or arising from the style lower 
down, not stigmatic and usually shorter and 
stouter. Petals of the male flowers connate into 
a minute funnel-shaped tube; of the female 
flowers free, or connate into a tube at their middle 
or upper part, with free claws . 3, P&PALANTHUS. 
1. ERIOCAULON, Linn.; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. PI. iii. 1020. 
Sepals 2-3, very rarely absent; in the female flowers free, equal or 
unequal, all concave, boat-shaped, flattened or filiform, rounded cr 
keeled on the back, or the 2 lateral concave or boat-shaped and the 
third much narrower and flattened or filiform, often bearded on the 
apical part, or ciliate; in the male flowers free or variously combined. 
Petals 2~3, sometimes rudimentary or absent in the male flowers, rarely 
wanting in the female flowers, free, often with a gland on the inner 
face near the apex, glabrous, ciliate or hairy. Stamens in two series, 
double the number of the petals or by abortion fewer ; anthers 2-celled. 
Staminodes in the female flowers none. Ovary 2-3-celled; style- 
branches 2-3, simple, filiform, without alternating appendages.— Marsh 
or aquatic herbs, usually stemless, with the leaves all radical, or occa- 
sionally with the stem or rhizome elongated below the tuft of leaves, 
or in a few species with a simple or branched leafy stem. Peduncles 
one-headed. Heads globose, hemispherical or oblong, rarely campanu- 
late. Flowering bracts oblong, obovate or linear, concave or flattish. 
The other characters as for the Order. 
Species about 160, found in all the warmer parts of both hemispheres, and in 
