r»6S CYPERACEiE. (SEDGE FAMILY.) 



or with hypogynous bristles or scales in its place; the 1-celled ovary icith a 

 single erect anatropous ovule, in fruit forming an achene. Style 2-cleft 

 with the fruit flattened or lenticular, or 3-cleft and fruit 3-angular. Em- 

 bryo minute at the base of the somewhat floury albumen. Stem-leaves 

 when present 3-ranked. — A large, widely diffused family. 



I. Flowers all perfect, rarely some of them Avith stamens or pistil abortive ; 



spikes all of one sort. 

 Tribe I. SCIKPE^. ypikelets mostly many-flowered, with only 1 (rarely 2) of the 

 lower scales empty. 



* S(;ales of the spikelet strictly 2-ranked, conduplicate and keeled. 

 -»- Flowers destitute of bristles and of beak to the achene ; inflorescence terminal. 

 1- Cyperus. Spikelets few -many-flowered, usually elongated or slender. 



2. Kyllinga. Spikelets 1-flowered (but of 3 or 4 scales), glomerate iu a sessile head. 



H- H- Flower furnished with bristles ; achene beaked ; inflorescence axillary. 



3. Dulicliium. Spikelets 6-10-flowered, slender, clustered on an axillary peduncle. 



* * Scales of the several - mauy.flowered spikelet imbricated all round (subdistichous in n. 5). 



•1- Achene crowned with the bulbous persistent base of the style (usually deciduous iu n. 7) ; 



flowers without inner scales (bractlets). 



++ Hypogynous bristles (perianth) generally present; culm naked. 



4. Eleocharis. Spikelet solitary, terminating the culm. Stamens 3. 



++ ++ Bristles always none ; culm leafy. 



5. Dichromena. Spikelets crowded into a leafy-involucrate head, laterally flattened, the 



scales more or less conduplicate and keeled. Many of the flowers imperfect or abortive. 



6. Psilocarya. Spikelets in broad open cymes. Style almost wholly persistent. 



7. Fimbristylis. Spikelets in an involucrate umbel. Culm leafy at base. Style usually 



wholly deciduous. 



•t- •(- Style not bulbous at base, 

 •w^ Flowers without inner scales, but bristles generally present. 



8. Scirpus. Spikelets solitary or clustered, or in a compound umbel, the stem often leafy 



at base and inflorescence involucrate. Barbed bristles 3 - 8 or none. Stamens mostly 3. 



9. Eriophoruin. As Scirpus, but the bristles naked, exserted and often silky in fruit. 



Stamens 1-3. 



•w- ++ Flower with one or more inner scales. 

 10. Fiiirena. Scales ofthe spikelet awned below the apex. Flower surrounded by 3 stalked 

 petal-like scales alternating with 3 bristles. 



II. Hemicarpha. Flower with a single very minute hyaline scale next the axis of the 



spikelet ; bristles none. 



12. Liipocarpha. Flower enclosed by 2 inner scales, one next the axis, the other in front 



of the achene ; V)ristles none. 

 Tribe II. RHYNCHOSPOREJE. Spikelets mostly 1-2-flowered, with 2-many of 

 the lower scales empty. 



13. Rliynchospora. Spikelets terete or flatfish ; scales convex, either loosely enwrapping 



or regularly imbricated. Achene crowned with a persistent tubercle or beak, and com- 

 monly surrounded by bristles. 



14. Cladium. Spikelets terete, few-flowered, the scales, etc., as in the preceding. Achene 



destitute of tubercle. No bristles. 



II. Flowers unisexual. 

 Tribe III. SCL.ERIE.iE. Flowers monoecious ; the staminate and pistillate in the 

 same or in different clustered spikes. Achene naked, bony or crustaceous, supported 

 on a hardened disk. 



15. Scleria. Spikes few-flowered; lower scales emptj'. No bristles or inner scales. 



