XYBIDACEAE 835 



45?. XVRIS. L. 



[Gr. JTyros, a razor; an ancient name of a plant with 2-edged leaves.] 

 Flowers single, in the axils of coriaceous scale-like bracts, which are 

 densely imbricated in an ovoid spike. Sepals 3, the 2 lateral ones 

 boat-shaped, glume-like, persistent, the anterior one larger, mem- 

 branaceous, inwrapping the corolla in the bud, and deciduous with 

 it. Petals 3, with long claws, slightly connected. Stamens 3 per- 

 fect, inserted on the claws of the petals, alternating with 3 sterile 

 filaments, which are cleft and plumose at apex. Capsule oblong, 

 1-celled, with 3 parietal placentae. Perennials: leaves more or less 

 ensiform ; flowers yellow. 



1. X. bull>rsa, Kunth. Scape bulbous at base, slender, angular, 



usually twisted and flexuose, ancipital at summit; leaves narrowly 



linear. 



X. Caroliniana. Fl. Cestr. ed. 2. p. 12. not of Walter. 



BULBOUS XYKIS. Yellow-flowering Rush. 



Scape 10 to 15 inches high, often several from the root. Leaves shorter than the 

 scape, flat, or sometimes twisted. Bracts chesnut-brown, orbicular-ovate, convex 

 externally, scale-like and closely imbricated. Lateral sepals finely ciliate on the 

 keel. Claws of the petals nearly as long as the bracts. 

 Hab. Sandy swamps, and margins of rivulets: frequent. Fl. Aug. Fr. Sept. 



ORDER CXVII. CYPERA^CEAE. 



Hush-like, or grass-like herbs; often cespitose ; rhizomas creeping and fibrous, some- 

 times tuberiferous ; sterns (or culms) solid with pith, sparingly nodose, often angu- 

 lar; leaves distichously alternate, grass-like, sessile, the petioles being dilated, 

 and closed round the culm so as to form an entire sheath, sometimes the lamina, 

 or blade, wholly wanting; flowers perfect, or monoicous (rarely dioicous), in little 

 bracteate clusters (called spikelets), usually one flower in the axil of each of the 

 glume-like imbricated bracts, or scales; perianth (in this Order, for convenience, 

 termed a perigynium,) none, except in some pistillate diclinous flowers (as Garex), 

 where it is a membranous or glumaceous sac, or sometimes, in perfect flowers, 

 the perianth seems to be substituted by some minute scales, or by a verticil of 

 hypogynous&mto,* or soft hairs; stamens usually 3 ; ovary 1-celled, with a single 

 erect ovule, in fruit becoming an akene, or caryopsis, which is lenticular, or trique- 

 trous, according as the style is bifid, or trifid ; embryo minute, inclosed in the base 

 of copious farinaceous albumen. An Order comprising some 50 genera, remark- 

 able for their little value to the Agriculturist; and also for their prevalence being 

 an indication of swampy, neglected, or unpromising soil. 



TRIBE 1. CYPERE V AE. 



Flowers perfect; spiJceleta usually many-flowered, with the bracts (or scales) distich- 

 ously imbricated; perigynium mostly none, sometimes consisting of retrorsely 

 hispid bristles ; styles rarely bulbous at base. 



458. CYPE^iUrS, L. 



[An ancient Greek name ; of obscure meaning.] 



Spikelets usually compressed, variously aggregated and arranged. _ 

 Scales often decurrent at base. Perigynium entirely wanting. _ 



*The distinguished Authors of the British Flora (ed. 6.) allege, that "those 

 bristles cannot be & perianth, because they are situated between the anther-bearing 

 stamens and the ovary." 



