often fenestrate; peduncles solitary or aggregate, slender, sheathed, usually 

 glabrous and several-costate; florets dimerous or trimerous, the staminate mixed 

 with the pistillate or segregated on separate heads or (rarely) on separate plants; 

 perigonium almost always double; staminate florets with the sepals free at the 

 base and often more or less connate into a split spathe, or the 2 or 3 petals 

 united below into a tube, free at apex, the lobes usually bearing a small black 

 gland on the inner surface near the apex; stamens twice as many as the sepals 

 (or rarely 3) and exserted; anthers 4-celled. mostly black, composed of 2 thecae; 

 pistillate florets with free or (rarely) spathaceous-connate sepals; petals free or 

 rarely none, usually each bearing a small black gland slightly below the apex 

 within; style appendages none; stigmas 2 or 3, simple. 



A genus of about 400 species, widely distributed in marshy places in tropical 

 and subtropical regions, the greatest number in tropical America; numerous also 

 in tropical Asia and Africa; one species in northwestern Europe and northeastern 

 North America; several on the Coastal Plain of eastern and southern United States. 



The leaves of some species are said to be eaten by ducks. 



1. Heads when mature glabrous or subglabrous, olivaceous, not white-villous 

 1. E. Kdrnickiamim. 



1. Heads when mature always white-villous at the summit (2) 



2(1). Receptacular bractlets surpassing the florets, long-acuminate; heads very 

 tough and hard, not at all compressed in drying; leaves mostly 

 rigid 2. E. decangulare. 



2. Receptacular bractlets about equaling or shorter than the florets; heads more 



or less compressed in drying; leaves mostly lax (3) 



3(2). Staminate florets with the anterior petal much larger than the posterior 

 one; plants mostly dioecious or practically so; heads 5-14 mm. in 

 diameter 3. E. compressum. 



3. Staminate florets with the petals equal or subequal; plants always plainly 



monoecious; heads 3-7 mm. in diameter (4) 



4(3). Heads loose-flowered, greatly compressed in drying 4. E. septangulare. 



4. Heads dense-flowered, scarcely compressed in drying 5. E. texense. 



1. Eriocaulon Kornickianum Van Heurck & Muell. Arg. 



Leaves erect, to 25 mm. long, 1 mm. wide, glabrous, 3-nerved; peduncles 

 aggregate, as many as 25, to 1 dm. tall, pale-green, 3- or 4-costate, twisted, the 

 basal sheath to 25 mm. long; heads globose or hemispheric, 2-4 mm. in diameter, 

 compressed in drying. 



In springy places on prairies and wet sandy soil in e. Okla., spring; also Ark. 

 and probably Tex. 



No Texas material has been seen but the type is considered to have been 

 collected in "East Texas" (Tyler Co.) by Charles Wright. 



2. Eriocaulon decangulare L. Fig. 301. 



Plants monoecious; leaves to 35 cm. long and 1 cm. wide at the middle, many- 

 nerved, the margin often revolute; peduncles 1 to 3 per plant, rigid, to I m. tall, 

 usually much smaller, many-costatc, not noticeably twisted, the basal sheath to 

 16 cm. long; heads globose or hemispheric, 7-12 mm. in diameter. 



In moist meadows and pinclands, savannahs, bogs, swamps and pond-margins 

 in e. Tex., spring; from N. J. to Fla. and w. along Gulf Coast to e. Tex. 



Plants with binary heads are sometimes found. 



3. Eriocaulon compressum Lam. Fig. 302. 



Plants rarely monoecious; leaves dull, to 25 cm. long and 6.5 mm. wide, many- 

 nerved; peduncles mostly solitary, rarely 2 or 3, to 85 cm. tall, 10-striate, more 

 or less twisted, the basal sheath about as long as leaves. 



590 



