THE SEDGE FAMILY. 



447 



Plant growing on land, or if in marshy places, not 

 floating ; the stems simple, erect, and usually 

 rigid. 

 Flowers unisexual. Stems three to six inches high. 

 Fruits, when ripe, dark-brown, rather dis- 

 tant, spreading horizontally, and resem- 

 bling fleas ; the spike altogether about an 



inch long 15. 



Flowers Msexual ; three stamens and a pistil 

 being in company under every scale of the 

 spikelet. 

 Flower-stalk leafless and sheathless, unless 

 quite at the base. 

 Stalks as fine as hair, two or three inches 

 high; root with thread-shaped run- 

 ners 



Stalks rigid, usually four to twelve or fifteen 

 inches high. 

 Styles mostly two-cleft. Stems numerous, 

 eight to twelve inches high. Spike- 

 lets half an inch long 6. 



Styles mostly three-cleft. 

 Sheaths at the base of the stem mthout 

 any leafy tip. Spikelets oblong. 

 Flowers numerous in each spikelet. 



Plant resembling No. G J 



Flowers three to six in each spikelet. ] 8 



Stems six inches high J 



Sheaths at the base of the stem, each with 

 a short leafy tip ; the sheaths 

 closely imbricated, the outer ones 

 brown, the inner ones green. 

 Stems two to twelve inches high, 

 densely tufted, and very rigid. 

 Flowers light-brown, six to eight 



in each spikelet 9 



Flower-stalk with one or two sheaths upon if 

 (the upper one remarkably inflated), some- 

 times ending in short leaves. Herbage 

 densely tufted ; stems ten to twelve inches 

 high. Spikelet erect, egg-shaped, half an 

 inch long, deep olive-green ; when in fruit 

 becoming a nearly globular, silvery-white 

 and very beautiful silky tuft, an inch or 

 more in diameter, owing to the growth of 

 interior bristles 



Flea Cahex, 



10, Needle Spike-eush. 



Common Spike-eush. 



7. 



Many-stalked Spike- 

 eush. 



Few-flowbeed Spike- 

 rush. 



,12. 



Heath Spike-eush. 



Haee's-tail Cotton- 



GEASS. 



