THE MONOCOTYLEDONES 



2065 



The genus Luziila (Wood Rush) has about sixty species, chiefly in the 

 Old World, six of which are found in Britain. 



The Cyperaceae are a family of world-wide distribution comprising 

 some eighty-five genera and over 2,500 species. They are grasslike herbs 

 with persistent, underground, sympodial rhizomes from which there arise 

 solitary or clustered three-sided shoots. The leaves are formed in three rows 

 and consist of a closed tubular sheath enveloping the stem and a linear 

 blade. They grow chiefly in marshy places though some, like Carex 

 arenaria, which forms an important constituent of sand-dune vegetation, 

 inhabit dry soils. 



The inflorescence is either a spike or a panicle, bearing numerous 

 spikelets which may each be a small cyme. The individual flower is borne 

 in the axil of a glume and may be either unisexual or hermaphrodite. 

 It is usually naked, or may have a perianth of six or more small scales or 

 hairs. There are three stamens and the gynoecium is composed of three or 

 two carpels. The ovary is unilocular with long feathery stigmas: there is a 



Fig. 2003. — Carex binerris. Unisexual inflorescences, the 

 two upper ones in each case being staminate, the lower 

 one carpellate, with protruding stigmas. 



