DIV. n 



ANGIOSPERMAE 



731 



the stem. Only the large lowermost bracts are sterile, the others have each 

 a naked hermaphrodite flower in their axils. The Cotton-grass (Eriophorum 

 angustifolium), which when flowering is inconspicuous, bears at the summit of its 

 fertile shoots 3-7 long-stalked erect spikelets with numerous imbricate bracts. 

 Around the base of each flower are numerous hairs, which are concealed by the 

 projecting stamens and style. When the plant is in fruit the hairs, which have 

 become about 3 mm. long, project freely from between the bracts and constitute a 

 valuable means of dispersal for the fruits. The white colour of the hairs makes 



Fto. SOS. SV!>y.i!/s xetaceus. 1, plant in 

 flown- ; .?, upper portion of a flowering 

 shoot ; 3, single flower ; It, the same from 

 behind ; 5, the same without the bract ; 

 6, fruit. (1, nat. size, the others x 2-6. 

 After HOFFMAXX.) 



FIG. 800. Erinpho, -, angugttfjltoim, 1, Inflores- 

 cence ; 2, a single spikelet ; 3, single flower ; 

 4, flower with bract removed ; 5, fruit. (1, 

 about nat. size, the others x 3-5. After 

 HOFFMANN.) 



the now pendulous spikelets of the Cotton-grass a conspicuous feature of peat-moor 

 vegetation (Fig. 809). Oyperus papyrus, in Egypt and Sicily, provided from its 

 stems, which are as thick as the thigh, the " paper" of the ancient Papyri. 



The genus Carex is for the most part monoecious, and its flowers are naked 

 and unisexual. Male spikes simple ; in the axil of each bract is a male flower formed 

 of three stamens (Fig. 810 A). The female spikes bear in the axil of each bract a 

 secondary shoot; the axis of this is included in the tubular subtending bract 

 (utriculus) together with the pistil (formed of 2 or 3 carpels), which is borne in the 

 axil of the bract (Fig. 810 B-E}. 



