about 0.5 mm. long, translucent, with 24 to 28 very fine straight longitudinal 

 lines of small papillae, the vertical lines straight but indistinct. (?) X. data Chapm. 



Wet sands or sandy peats of flatwoods, pond margins, ditches and lake shores, 

 but more often on alluvial situations (often in fairly heavy shade) in e. Tex., 

 spring-summer; primarily on the Coastal Plain from Tex. to s.e. Can. and the 

 Great Lakes system. 



Var. Curtissii (Malme) Krai. Similar to var. diffonnis but smaller, usually 

 less than 2 dm. high, more tufted and with the margins of the equitant portion 

 of the leaves very broad and pinkish-translucent, the surfaces papillose or low- 

 tuberculate with the papillae or tubercles in slightly diagonal lines, the bases 

 pinkish or purplish and similarly papillate; sheaths of the scape looser with the 

 bases a rich-brown or sometimes castaneous; scapes rarely to 2 dm., terete with 

 many low ridges below, the margins of the ridges papillate or scabrid; spikes at 

 seed-bearing time broadly ovoid to ellipsoidal, seldom longer than 5 mm., of but 

 few bracts; fertile bracts 3-4 mm. long, suborbicular to broadly obovate, the 

 outer surfaces pale to deep brown and lustrous, the ellipsoidal dorsal areas gray- 

 green and becoming brown and indistinct with age; lateral sepals included, about 

 the length of the bracts, linear-curvate, a lustrous-brown, the thin wings broad, 

 the slightly thicker keel broadened and somewhat lacerate toward its tip or even 

 entire; petal blades obovate to cuneate, slightly less than 3 mm. long, unfolding 

 in the early morning; seeds oblong to ellipsoidal, about 0.5 mm. long, translu- 

 cent, with 12 or 14 faint longitudinal lines, the vertical lines even more faint. 



Sandy peats of ditches and bogs, flatwoods or acid seepage areas in e. Tex., 

 spring-summer; from the Great Lakes system and s.e. Can. s. to Fla. and Tex. 



Fam. 31. Eriocaulaceae Desv. Pipewort Family 



Perennial or rarely annual aquatic or marsh herbs, mostly short-stemmed; 

 roots tufted, fibrous, knotty or spongy, often septate; leaves mostly basal and 

 tufted, narrow, grasslike; inflorescence capitate, in terminal solitary or umbellately 

 aggregate involucrate heads, borne on long slender scapose peduncles that are 

 sheathed at the base; florets numerous, small, sessile or short-pedicellate on a 

 variously shaped receptacle, each borne in the axil of a scarious scalelike colored 

 or colorless receptacular bractlet, unisexual, mostly androgynous, the staminate 

 and pistillate mixed together or the staminate in the center and the pistillate on 

 the periphery, the sexes very rarely in separate heads; perianth scarious or mem- 

 branous, rarely hyaline, 2- or 3-merous, usually in 2 distinct series, the outer 

 (calyx) free or rarely partially connate, the inner (corolla) often united in an 

 infundibular fashion, rarely absent; stamens as many or twice as many as the 

 outer perianth segments and alternate with them, inserted on the corolla (when 

 present); filaments distinct; anthers small, 2- or 4-ceIled, composed of 1 or 2 

 thecae, opening by longitudinal slits, introrse; ovary superior, 2- or 3-celled; style 

 terminal, often appendaged; stigmas 2 or 3, simple or lobed; ovules solitary and 

 pendulous in each cell, orthotropous; fruit a 2- or 3-celled and 2- or 3-seeded 

 membranous capsule, loculicidally dehiscent; seeds solitary, pendulous. 



About 1,150 species in 13 genera, mostly tropical and subtropical. 



1. Stamens 4 or 6, twice as many as the outer perianth segments; peduncles 

 glabrous or at most puberulent 1. Eriocaulon 



1. Stamens 2 or 3, as many as the outer perianth segments; peduncle villous above 

 2. Lachnocaulon 



1. Eriocaulon L. Pipewort 



Stems short; leaves tufted, membranous or very thin and pellucid, more or 

 less linear or linear-lanceolate and grasslikc, sessile and clasping at base, very 



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