Family 1. SCHEUCHZERIACEAE 
By NATHANIEL LORD BRITTON 
Perennial marsh herbs with rush-like leaves and small spicate or racemose 
perfect flowers. Perianth 4~6-parted, its segments in two series, persistent 
or deciduous. Stamens 3-6. Filaments very short or elongate. Anthers 
mostly 2-celled and extrorse. Carpels 3-6, 1-2-ovuled, more or less united 
until maturity, dehiscent or indehiscent ; stigmas sessile or nearly so. Seeds 
1 or 2 in each carpel, anatropous. Embryo straight. 
Leaves all basal; flowers numerous on naked scapes, ebracteate, spicate or in spike-like racemes. 
. 1, TRIGLOCHIN. 
Stem leafy ; flowers few in a loose raceme. 2. SCHEUCHZERIA. 
1. TRIGLOCHIN L,. Sp. Pl. 338. 1753. 
‘Marsh herbs with basal half-rounded ligulate leaves with membranous sheaths. 
Flowers in terminal spikes or racemes on long, naked scapes. Perianth-segments 3-6, 
concave, the three inner ones inserted higher up than the outer. Stamens 3-6; filaments 
short; anthers oval, 2-celled, sessile or nearly so, inserted at the base of the perianth-seg- 
ments and attached by their backs. Ovaries 3-6, united, each 1-celled, sometimes abor- 
tive; ovules solitary, basal, erect, anatropous. Style short or none. Stigmas as many as 
the ovaries, plumose. Fruit of 3-6 cylindraceous, oblong or obovoid carpels, which are 
distinct or connate, coriaceous, costate, when ripe separating from the base upward from a 
persistent central axis, dehiscing by the ventral suture. Seed erect, cylindraceous or 
ovoid-oblong, compressed or angular. 
Type species, 7riglochin palustris L. 
Carpels 3. 
Fruit linear or clavate, tapering to a subulate base. 1, 7. palustris, 
Fruit globose-trigonous. 2. T. striata. 
Carpels 6; fruit oblong or ovoid, obtuse at the base. 3. ZT. maritima 
1. Triglochin palustris L,. Sp. Pl. 338. 1753. 
Rootstock short, oblique, with slender fugacious stolons. Leaves linear, shorter than 
the scapes, 12-30 cm. long, tapering to a sharp tip; ligule very short; scapes 1 or 2, 
slender, striate, 0.2-0.6m. high; racemes 12-30 cm. long; pedicels capillary, in fruit erect- 
appressed and 5-7 mm. long; perianth-segments 6, greenish-yellow; anthers 6, sessile ; 
pistil of 3 united carpels, 3-celled, 3-ovuled ; stigmas sessile; fruit 6-7 mm. long, about 1.5 
mm. thick, linear or clavate; ripe carpels separating from the axis and hanging suspended 
from its apex, the axis 3-winged. 
TYPE LOCALITY: Europe. 
DISTRIBUTION: Greenland to Alaska, south to Maine, New York, Pennsylvania, and Indiana ; 
‘in the Rocky Mountains to southern Colorado and Washington ; also in southern South America, 
Europe, and Asia. 
ILLUSTRATIONS: Britt. & Brown, Ill. Fl. f. 184; Mem. Torrey Club 3: p/. 20; Fl. Dan. 3: pi. 
490 ; Benth. Ill. Handb. Brit. Fl. 2: /. 963; Baxter, Brit. Bot. 1: p/. 60; Schnizl. Icon. f1. 49, 
10-12 ; Coste, Fl. Fr. f. 3701; Pratt, Fl. Pl. Great Brit. 3: p/. 233, 7.6; Bild. Nord. Fl. p/. 486, 
Sv. Bot. 2: pl. 117; Sturm, Deuts. Fl. 13: p1. 9. 
2. Triglochin striata R. & P. Fl. Per. 3:72. 1802. 
Triglochin triandra Michx. Fl. Bor. Am. 1: 208. 1803. 
Triglochin mexicana H.B.K. Nov. Gen. & Sp. 1: 244. 1815. 
Rootstocks upright or oblique. Scapes 1 or 2, more or less angular, usually not over 
0.3 m. high; leaves slender, slightly fleshy, nearly or quite as long as the scapes, 0.5-2 
mm. wide; flowers very small, light-yellow or greenish, in narrow racemes; pedicels 1-2 
mm, long, not elongating in fruit; perianth-segments 3; oval or ovate, obtuse, less than 1 
VOLUME 17, Parr 1, 1909] 7 41 
