CLASS IV. GLUMACEOUS ENDOGENS. 
Fiowers with glumes; or floral organs enclosed in imbricated 
bracts, and arranged in spikelets, having no proper perianth (calyx 
or corolla). Ovary with one cell containing a solitary ovule and 
becoming a one-seeded fruit (achenium or caryopsis). 
Orver CLX. CYPERACE2®.—Sences. 
Herbs mostly perennial, coarse, grass-like, cespitose. Root fibrous or rarely tuberous. 
Stems (culms) usually solid with pith, generally without joints or nodes, and triangular. 
Lvé. with their sheaths entire. Injlorescence mostly capitate or spicate. 
Fis. perfect or monecious, solitary in the axil of each bract (glume, scale). 
Per. wanting, or represented by a few hypogynous bristles, or a cup-shaped or saccate perigyniwm. 
Sta. definite (1—12), mostly 3.. Anthers fixed by their base, entire, 2-celled. 
Ova. generally either surrounded by bristles, or invested in the saceate perigynium. Ovule erect. 
Sty. 2or 3, more or less united. Szigmas undivided, rarely bifid. | 
Fr.anachenium. Embryo in the end of the albumen next the hilum. 
Genera 112, species 2000. The sedges abound in almost all countries and climes of the globe, and in all 
localities, but are more common in the meadows, marshes and swamps of the temperate zones. About 
25 genera and 340 species are known in North America. 
Properties.—They are in general little used for food or in the arts. Their coarse herbage is often eaten 
by cattle, but they are nearly destitute of the sweet and nutritious properties of the grasses. The leaves 
of some of the larger species are used in Italy to bind flasks, and in weaving the bottoms of chairs. 
Yet, although of so little apparent value, their vast numbers authorize the belief that they subserve 
many highly important ends in the economy of nature. . 
Conspectus of the Genera. 
Flowers in axillary, racemose spikelets. . . . |. |. « Dulichium. 1 
ibis Spikelets linear, many-flowered, distinct, loose. Cyperus. 2 
distichously : - Ach. triangular. Mariscus. 3 
imbricated. (Fis. all terminal. ( Spikelets 1—2-flowered, inhds. ¢ Ach lenticular. Kyllingia: 4 
Perigynium of3 ovate, unguiculate petals, with 3bristles. Fuirena. 5 
Leaves 0. Spike solitary, terminal. . Eleocharis. 6 
Bristles 3—6. .... . .« .. »,Seirpus. 7 
Bristles numerous, long. . Eriophorum. 8 
Fis. all | Leaves Style 2-cleft. . Fimbristylis. 9 
.termin. (present. . 
Bristles 0. ¢Style 3-cleft. . Trichelostylis. 10 
Bristles 3—6. Sty. deciduous. Scirpus. 7 
Flowers all lateral. ?@Bristles 0. Leavesradical. . Hemicarpha. 11 
Style short, bulbous at base. Rhynchospora. 13 
none. 
Flowers ( Brist. 8—6. ¢Style very long, horn-like. . Ceratoschenus.14 
2 F | oth Spikelets 20—30-flowered. . Psilocarya. 12 
=| aly or (Ach. not | 3|axiland) Spikelets re corky, brown. Cladium. 15 
= | irregularly 4 enclosed. (a \termin. | Bristles 0. ( few fiwrd. ? Ach. bony, white. Scleria. 16 
© Uimbricated. ( Achenium enclosed in a saccate perigynium. Fis. declinous. - Carex. 17 
Trizel. CYPEREZ.—Flowers $. Spikelets distichously imbrieated. 
1 DULICHIUM. 
Gr. dum, two, Aetynv, scale ; alluding w the glumes in two rows? 
Spikelets linear-lanceolate, subcompressed; glumes sheathing, 
closely imbricated in 2 rows; style long, bifid, the persistent base 
crowning the compressed achenium; ovary invested with sete.— 
Stem leafy. Spikes axillary, racemose. 
D. spatHaceum. Pers. (Cyperus. Linn. Scirpus. Michz. 
S¢. round, leafy and somewhat 3-sided above, thick, sheathed below; Jvs. 
alternate, pointing 3 ways, 2—4’ by 3”; sheaths tubular, shorter than the inter- 
nodes; spikes axillary from within the sheaths and terminal, each consisting 
of 8—10 linear-lanceolate, alternate spikelets in 2 rows; spikelets 5—7-flowered, 
nearly an inch in length; giwmes linear-lanceolate—2 Marshes, borders of 
streams, U.S. and Can. Aug. 
2. CYPERUS. 
Spikelets compressed, distinct, many-flowered ; glumes imbricated 
in two, opposite rows, nearly all with a flower enclosed ; ovary generally 
without setee.—Mostly %4. Stem simple, leafy at base, mostly triangu- 
lar, bearing an involucrate, simple or compound wmbel at top. 
