352 SEDGE FAMILY. 



128. ERIOCAULONACEJE, PIPEWORT FAMILY. 



Another small group of marsh or aquatic herbs, of Rush-like 

 appearance, with a head of monoecious white-bearded flowers, in 

 structure somewhat like the Yellow-eyed Grass, terminating a naked 

 scape, at the base of which is a tuft of grassy awl-shaped, linear, 

 or lanceolate leaves of loose cellular texture, not equitant, but the 

 upper surface concave. 



Briocaulon Septangulare, in ponds or in their gravelly margins, is 

 the common species N., with 7-angled scape 2'- 6' high, or more, when the water 

 is deeper : fl. summer. 



E. gnaphalpdes, with grassy awl-shaped taper-pointed leaves, in pine- 

 barren swamps from N. Jersey S. 



E. decangulare, with similar or wider and blunt leaves, 10-12-ribbed 

 scapes l-3 high, and heads sometimes ' wide; in similar situations S. 



III. GLUMACEOUS DIVISION. Flowers enclosed or sub- 

 tended by glumes or husk-like bracts ; no proper calyx or corolla, 

 except sometimes minute bristles or scales which represent the peri- 

 anth. Stems of the straw-like sort, called culms. 



129. CYPERACE^E, SEDGE FAMILY. 



Some rush-like, others grass-like plants, with flowers in spikes or 

 heads, one in the axil of each glume, the glume being a scale-like or 

 husk-like bract. No calyx nor corolla, except some vestiges in the 

 form of bristles or occasionally scales, or a sac which imitates a 

 perianth ; the 1-celled 1-ovuled ovary in fruit an akene. Divisions 

 of the style 2 when the akene is flattish or lenticular, or 3, when it 

 is usually triangular. Leaves when present very commonly 3- 

 ranked, and their sheath a closed tube; the stem not hollow. A large 

 family, to be studied in the Manual, &c., and too difficult for the 

 beginner. Therefore passed over here. 



None cultivated, except sparingly CYPERUS ESCULENTUS of the 

 Mediterranean region, for its nut-like, sweet-tasted tubers, called 

 CHUFA : only two are pernicious weeds, and that from their multi- 

 plying by similar nut-like tubers, which are hard to extirpate ; these 

 are CYPERUS PHYMATODES, in sandy soil, but troublesome only S. ; 

 and C. ROTUNDUS, var. HYDRA, the NUT-GRASS or COCO-GRASS 

 of the South. In the genus SCIRPUS, the tall COMMON BULRUSH, 

 S. LACUSTRIS, or better the small one with 3-sided stems, S. PUN- 

 GENS, in the borders of ponds, is used for rush-bottomed chairs. 

 CLADIUM EFFUSUM, with its coarse saw-edged leaves is the SAW- 

 GRASS of the South. Of Sedges proper (CAREX) there are about 

 160 species, several of which contribute (more in bulk than value) 

 to the hay of low coarse meadows and half-reclaimed bogs. 



