ERIOCAULACEAE 299 
to ellipsoid, 1.5-2.5 em. long: lateral sepals 7-9 mm. long, relatively broad; 
ving crested with long spreading segments from about the middle to the s aper. 
onds or swampy places in pinelands, Coastal Plain, Fla. to Miss. and 
X. flexuosa Muhl. Leaves with dark dilated bases, 1-4 dm. long, usually 
spirally twisted: scape 3—7 dm . tall, somewhat flattened above, spirally twisted: 
s pd or conic- oblong, 1 -5 5-3 cm. long, EL acute : later al sepals 8—12 
ong; fri of the wing firm: corolla yellow. [X. torta Kunth X. are- 
DS Small] Pinelands, Coastal Plain, Fla. b "Tex., Ark., N. J. 
19. X. pallescens (C. d pier Leaves few, Mid bu by the persis- 
tent purple or brown bases of those of previous years, 2—4 dm. long, spirally 
. twisted: scape 3-6 dm tall, spirally en 2- edged above spike ellipsoid or 
- eonic-ellipsoid, 1—1.5 em . lon ng: latera sepals 6 9 long, very delicate, 
narrow; fringe of the wing delicate: iu white Pinelands, open inne 
and sandy shores, Coastal Plain, Fla., Ala., and Ga. 
20. X. Baldwiniana R. & S. Leaves numerous, filiform, terete, 0.5-2 dm long, 
. tà A 
A rs or AE , 4-6 mm. long, turbinate at the base: lateral sepals 
long, t e P ‘half of the keel-wing serrate: sterile filaments glab- 
rous.— LBT. MARY'S GRASS.)—Damp pinelands or pineland ponds, Coastal Plain, 
Fla. to Tex. and N. C. 
ORDER HRIOCAULALES—EriocauLaL ORDER 
Acaulescent terrestrial herbs with the narrow leaves often crowded 
on a short caudex or with the caudex elongate and stem-like. Flowers 
crowded in a dense depressed or elongate head, monoecious or dioecious. 
Calyx and corolla minute. Gynoecium with a superior ovary. Fruit a 
fragile capsule. Seeds very minute, nut-like. 
Faminty 1. ERIOCAULACEAE — Pirewort FAMILY 
Perennial and perhaps rarely annual, mostly acaulescent, bog or 
aquatic herbs. Rootstocks often creeping or horizontal. Leaves clus- 
tered: blades narrow. Seapes simple, subtended by hing bracts 
Flowers monoecious (androgynous), or rarely dioecious, densely crowded 
a terminal involucrate head erianth in 2 the inner rarely 
obsolete). Staminate flowers with a any stamens as or 
st 
twice as many. Pistillate flowers with a 2-3-celled ovary. Fruit a cap- 
sule.—Nine genera and over on apes in warm and tropical regions, 
most abundant in South Ameri 
Stamens 2 or 3, ny as the sepals: petals glandless. 
Petals of the pistillate flowers obsolete. 1. LACHNOCAULON. 
Petals of the pistillate flowers resembling the sepals and 
united at the middle.. 2. SXNGONANTHUS. 
Stamens 4-6, twice as many as the sepals: petals each bear- 
ing a prominent gland. 3. ERIOCAULON. 
1. LACHNOCAULON Kunth. Flower head not conspicuously involuerate. 
Staminate flowers: p 3; petals obsolete; stamens 3; filaments united be- 
low, coalescent with a rudimentary corolla or pistil, this with 3 lobes at the 
top; anthers 1- celled. "Pistillate flowers: sepals 3; petals obsolete.—Repre- 
