GROUP V. ANGIOSPERMJE : MONOCOTYLEDOXES. 



493 



Scirpus, the Club-Hush, has a bristly perianth, cylindrical spikelets, 

 and the glumes are imbricate on all sides ; in some species the spikelets 

 are solitary, as in Scirpus ccespitosus, in others there are lateral spikelets, 

 in addition, on short stalks, as in S. lacustris (the true Bulrush), or on 

 long stalks, as in S. sylvaticus, Eriophorum polyatacJiium and other species 

 (Cotton-Grass) are common on boggy moors; the hairs of the perianth, 

 after flowering, grow to a considerable length. 



Tribe 2. Caricoidece : spikelets cylindrical \ flowers unisexual ; perianth 

 0. 



These plants have diclinous (sometimes dioecious) flowers. In the genus 

 Carex the $ flowers have the formula KQ, CO, 43+0, GO] they are situated 

 in the axils of bracts (glumes) (Fig. 304 B and D) and form simple spikes. 

 The ? flowers have the formula KO, CO, 40+0, G (3 > or <1> and are not sessile 

 in the axils of the glumes (6 in Fig. 304 A and C), but a short branch 

 springs from the axil of each of these leaves bearing a second bract (s in 



FIG. 303. A Flower of Scirpus (magnified): FIG. 304. Flower of Carex (masr.). 



p the bristly perianth ; a the three stamens ; A $ flower with (b) bract (elume) ; * 



the ovary : n the three stigmata. B Its second bract (utriculus) ; / ovary ; n 



floral diagram. stigma. B <J flower : st the three 



stamens ; o anthers. C Diagram of the 

 9 and (D) of the S flower: r axis of the 

 spike ; b bract (glume) ; s second bract. 



the Fig.) and it is in the axil of this second bract that the ? flower, which 

 consists of a trimerous, or more rarely, dimerous (in Carex dioica and 

 pulicaris, etc.) ovary, is situated. The second bract increases greatly and 

 invests the fruit (and the short branch which sometimes projects beyond 

 the fruit as a seta,}, forming the so-called utriculus : this structure has been 

 regarded as a perianth, and termed the perigynium. In Kobresia (Elyna) 

 the second bract is not tubular, and therefore does not completely invest 

 the ovary. In consequence of there being a second bract, the odd carpel 

 of the trimerous gynaeceum is posterior : when the gynseceum is dimerous, 

 the two carpels are lateral. 



The genus Carex, the Sedge, contains numerous, species which grow 

 mostly in damp localities ; they have stiff leaves with sharp or saw-like 

 edges. Only a few of them are dioecious (C. dioica, scirpoidea] : in most 



