PHANEROGAMIA 



525 



The genera Cyperus, Scirpus, and Eriophorum have hermaphrodite flowers. 

 Fig. 518 represents a plant of Scirpus setaceus, which, is an annual, in flower. 

 Leaves rigid, channelled above. Fertile shoots with the uppermost internode 

 elongated. Spikes 1-3, terminal ; enclosed hy imbricating bracts and displaced 

 to one side by the subtending bract the line of which continues that of 

 the stem. Only the large, lowermost bracts are sterile, the others have each 

 a naked hermaphrodite flower in their axils. Other species have the perianth 



FIG. 518. Scirpus setaceus. 1, plant in 

 flower ; 2, upper portion of a flowering 

 shoot ; 3, single flower ; 4, the same from 

 behind ; 5, the same without the bract ; 

 6, fruit. (After HOFFMANN. 1, nat. 

 size, the others x -'-('>. ) 



I'h-. .">!!'. Eriaphorum angnstifullmn, 1, Inflores- 

 cence ; 2, a single spikelet ; 3, single flower ; 

 it, flower with bract removed ; 5, fruit. (After 

 HOFFMANN ; 1, about nat. size ; the others x 

 3-5.) 



represented by bristles. The Cotton-grass (Eriophorum anyustifolium], which 

 when flowering is inconspicuous, bears at the summit of its fertile shoots 

 3-7, long-stalked, erect spikelets with numerous, imbricate bracts. Around the base 

 of each flower are numerous hairs, which ar^ concealed by the projecting stamens 

 and style. When the plant is in fruit the hairs, which have become about 3 cm. 

 long, project freely from between the bracts and constitute a valua-ble means of 

 dispersal for the fruits. The white colour of the hairs makes the now pendulous 

 spikelets of the Cotton-grass a conspicuous feature of peat-moor vegetation 

 (Fig. 519). Cyperus papyrus, in Egypt and Sicily. 



The genus Carex is for the most part monoecious, and its flowers are naked and 



