302 



§ 1. Avenacea?, Kunth. (A vena.) 

 §2. Arundinaceae, Kunth (Arundo, Gynerium.) 

 § 3. Festucea?, Kunth. (Cynosurus, Bromus, Poa.) 

 9. Oryzeae, Kunth. (Leersia, Oryza.) 

 10. Bambusete, Kunth. 



§ 1. Triglossa?, Link. (Arundinaria.) 



§2. Bambusea; vera;, Nees. (Bambusa, Streptochaeta.) 



CCLXII. CYPERACE.E The Sedge Tribe. 



Cypeboideje, Juss. Gen. 26. (1789); Link Hort. Botanic. 1. (1827).— Cvperaceje, R. Brown 

 Prodr. 212. (1810); Lestiboudois Essai ; Dec. and Duby, 483. (1828) ; Lindl. Synops 

 278. (1829.) * U P 



Diagnosis. Glumaceous monocotyledons, with angular stems, entire leaf- 

 sheaths, and an undivided emtoyo included within the albumen. 



Anomalies. The glumes of Carex and Uncinia are united by their mar- 

 gins, so as to form an external covering to the pistillum. 



Essential Character. — Flowers monoclinous or diclinous, consisting - of imbricated soli- 

 tary bractese, very rarely enclosing' other opposite bractese at right angles with the first, called 

 glumes. Perianthium none, unless the glumes, when present, be so considered, or the hypogy- 

 nous setffi. Stamens hypogynous, definite, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 12 ; anthers fixed by their 

 base, entire, 2-celled. Ovary 1-seeded, often surrounded by bristles called hypogynous setae, 

 probably constituting the rudiments of a perianthium ; ovulum erect ; style single, trifid, or 

 bifid ; stigmas undivided, occasionally bifid. Nut crustaceous or bony. Albumen of the 

 same figure as the seed ; embryo lenticular, undivided, enclosed within the base of 'the albu- 

 men; plutnula inconspicuous. — Roots fibrous. Stems very often without joints, 3-comered, 

 or taper. Leaves with their sheaths entire. The lowermost bractese often sterile. 



Affinities. These so nearly resemble the last tribe in appearance, that 

 the one may be readily mistaken for the other by incurious persons ; they are, 

 however, essentially distinguished by many important points of structure. In 

 the first place, their steins are solid and angular, not round and fistular ; there 

 is no diaphragm at the articulations ; their flowers are destitute of any other 

 covering than that afforded them by a single bractea, in the axilla of which they 

 grow, with the exception of Carex, Uncinia, and Diplacrum, in which 2 oppo- 

 site glumes are added ; and, finally, the seed has its embryo lying in one end 

 of the albumen, within which its cotyledonar extremity is enclosed, and not on 

 the outside, as in Grasses ; a very important fact, which it is the more necessa- 

 ry to point out, as Mr. Brown describes it (Prodr. 212) as lenticular and placed 

 on the outside of the albumen. The additional glumes above adverted to form 

 what Linnesan botanists call the nectary or arillus ! Mr. Brown mentions a 

 case where these glumes, which he calls a capsular perianthium, included sta- 

 mens instead of a pistillum. According to Turpin, rudiments of them some- 

 times appear in different species of Mariscus. The close affinity of Cypera- 

 ceae, on the one hand, to Grasses, is sufficiently apparent ; on the other, they 

 approach Junceae and Restiacea?, in the glumaceous state of the perianthium, 

 and in general habit. They are at once known from Restiacea; by the sheaths 

 of the leaves not being slit. The species are extremely difficult to determine, 

 and the distinctive characters of the genera are unsatisfactory* 



* It ia to be hoped that much light will be thrown upon the subject by M. Prescott, of St. 

 Petersburgh, who has long been making these plants his especial study, and to whom all bota- 

 nists who wish well to science ought to confide whatever materials they may be able to spare. 



