| ERIOCAULACEAE 135 
18. XYRIDACEAE (XyrRIS FAMILY) 
Tufted or scattered, rigid or wiry, erect herbs, the leaves all radical, 
grass-like, linear or subulate. Scape simple, naked, elongated, bearing 
a single head. Flowers sessile, perfect, each subtended by a dark-brown, 
imbricating, concave, rigid bract. Bracteoles or sepals 8, deciduous, dry, 
embracing the claws of the petals, the dorsal one often hooded, broader 
than the 2 lateral ones. Petals 3, clawed, the limb yellow. Stamens 3, 
inserted at the bases of the petals, included; staminodes 3, or sometimes 
none. Ovary superior, imperfectly 3-celled; placentas 38, many-ovuled; 
style trifid. Capsule loculicidally 3-valved or the top circumciss. Seeds 
small, numerous, linear. 
Two genera and about 50 species, in all warm countries, a single genus 
and 2 species in the Philippines. 
1. XYRIS Linnaeus 
Character of the Family as given above. (A Greek name of a plant 
with 2-edged leaves.) 
1. X. pauciflora Willd. 
A slender, erect, tufted or scattered, grass-like plant 15 to 30 cm high. 
Leaves erect, rather rigid, linear, flat, acuminate, about 2 mm wide, very 
much shorter than the scape which is slender and exserted. Head ovoid, 
yellowish-brown, dense, 4 to 6 mm long, the bracts broadly ovate, shining, 
strongly imbricate. Flowers yellow, small. 
In open wet grasslands, old rice paddies, etc., La Loma to Masambong, 
fl. Oct.Dec.; rather widely distributed in Luzon. India to China south- 
ward to Australia. 
19. ERIOCAULACEAE (PIPEWORT FAMILY) 
Herbs growing in wet places with narrow leaves crowded in a rosette 
at the base, the flowers small, crowded in dense, bracteate, globose to 
ovoid, usually long-peduncled heads, dimerous or trimerous, male and 
female flowers usually in the same head. Involucral bracts usually wider 
than the floral ones which are usually longer than the flowers, glabrous or 
ciliate. Male flowers: Sepals 2 or 3, free or connate, very rarely wanting. 
Petals 2 or 3, rarely wanting, small, often obscure, inserted at the top of 
an elongated stipe with the stamens, usually gland-bearing. Stamens 6. 
Female flowers: Sepals 2 or 3, free, rarely connate. Petals 3, rarely 2 
or none, usually oblanceolate, or spathulate, glabrous or ciliate. Ovary 3-, 
rarely 2-celled; stigmas 3 or 2. Capsules membranaceous, usually 3-lobed; 
seeds small, solitary, smooth or striate. 
Genera 9, species about 575, in the warmer parts of both hemispheres, 
a single genus in the Philippines. 
1. ERIOCAULON Linnaeus 
Characters of the Family as given above. (Greek “wool” and “stem.’) 
Species over 200 in the warmer parts of both hemispheres, 7 or more 
in the Philippines. 
1. Sepals of the female flowers very strongly keeled................ 1. E. alatum 
1. Sepals of the female flowers narrow, flat, not at all keeled, or rarely 
wanting. ; 
