FAMILIES OF FLOWERING PLANTS. 



41 



Fig. 36.— Mayaca (Maijaai Michaiixii) showiuK 

 plant of natural size, and enlarged flower. 

 Original. 



tufted herbs with slender, orrass-like stems, terminated hv a dense 



spike composed of brownish 

 scales or bracts, from the axils 

 of which appear a few small, 

 evanescent, bright yellow fiow- 

 ers. The structure of the 

 sepals and pistal is most beauti- 

 ful, l)ut very complicated, and 

 it can be studied advantageous- 

 ly only ])y a botanist. The 

 stems are frequently twisted 

 like a corkscrew, whence one of 

 the species is called Xyru torfa. 

 The genus is scarcely repre- 

 sented in the northern states, 

 but numerous species are scat- 

 tered over the southern pine barrens. 



Family Eriocaulonaceae. Pipewort Family. Six genera and 

 about 350 species, widely distrilmted in tropical regions, and particu- 

 larly abundant in South America. Three genera reach the Southern 

 United States, and one species of Eriocoilon extends even to New- 

 foundland. The plants grow in bogs or shallow water, and farther 

 South usually in moist pine barrens; they are scapose, with basal 

 grass-like leaves, and long-peduncled globose heads of very small 

 white or greenish flowers. The perianth is in two series, forming a 

 distinct calyx and corolla, as may be seen in the enlarged flower in 

 Figure 38. The family possesses no economic and little ornamental 

 value. 



Family Rapateaceae. Rapatea Family. A single genus, Bapatt/o, 

 with about 20 South American species. They are rush -like herbs, 

 and were formerly classed with the true rushes (Juncaceae) but differ 

 materially in certain structural characters. 



Family Bromeliaceae. Pineapple Family. Everyone who has 

 visited the southern states has noticed and admired the graceful south- 

 ern moss, long moss or gray moss, as it is variously called. In 

 Florida, too, a pineapple plantation is not an uncommon sight; and 

 yet who would connect these two plants in any way if they had not 

 chanced to observe the similarity of floral structured 



There is much more diversity of habit among the Bromeliaceae 



