ERTOCAUI.ONACE^. (PU'EWOUT FAMILY.) 549 



Ordkr 126. EBIOCAULOXACE^. (riPKwouT Family.) 



Aquatic or marsh herbs, stemless or shorl-stemmed, loiih a tufl of Jibroua 

 roots, a cluster of linear and often loosely cellular grass-like leaces, and 

 naked scapes sheathed at the base, bearing dense heads of rnoncKcious or 

 rarely dicecious small 2 - Z-merous flowers, each in the axil of a scarious 

 bract; the perianth double or rarely simple, chaffy; anthers introrse; the 

 fruit a '2-3-celled 2-3-seeded pod: the ovules, seeds, embryo, &c. as in 

 the preceding order. — Chiefly tropical plants, a few in northern temper- 

 ate regions. 



1. Eriocaul on. Perianth double, the inner (corolla) tubular-funnel-fonn in the staminate 



flowers ; the stamens twice as many as its lobes (4 or 6). Anthers 2-celled. 



2. Peepalaiitliu.s. Perianth as in the last: the stamens only as many as the lobes of the 



inner series, or corolla (3). Anthers 2-celleJ. 



3. Laelinncaulon. Perianth simple, of 3 sepals. Stamens 3, monadelphous below. An- 



thers 1-celled. 



1. ERIOCAULON, L. Pipewort. 



Flowers moncEcious and androgynous, i. e. both kinds in the same head, either 

 intermixed, or the central ones sterile and the exterior fertile, rarely dioecious. 

 Ster. Ft. Calyx of 2^ or 3 keeled or boat-shaped sepals, usually spatulate or 

 dilated upwards. Corolla tubular, 2 -3-lobed, each of the lobes bearinj^ a black 

 gland or spot. Stamens twice as many as the lobes of the corolla, one inserted 

 at the base of each lobe and one in each sinus: anthers 2-celied. Pistils rudi- 

 mentary. Fert. FL Calyx as in the sterile flowers, often remote from tbe rest 

 of the flower (therefore perhaps to be viewed as a pair of bractlets). Corolla 

 of 2 or 3 separate narrow petals. Stamens none. Ovary often stalked, 2-3- 

 lobed, 2-3-celled, with a single ovule in each cell: style 1 : stigmas 2 or 3, 

 slender. Pod membranaceous, loculicidal. — Leaves mostly smooth,, loosely cel- 

 lular and pellucid, flat or concave above. Scapes or peduncles terminated by a 

 single head, which is involucrate by some outer empty uracts. Flowers, also 

 the tips of the bracts, &c., usually white-bearded or woolly. (Na,nie compounded 

 of epLov, wool, and Kav\6s, a stalk, from the wool at the base of the scape and 

 leaves of the original species. Excepting this and the flowers, our species are 

 wliolly glabrous.) — The North American species are all stemless, with a 

 depressed head, and have the parts of the flowers in twos, the stamens 4. 



1. E. deoangul^re, L. {syn. Pink. &c.) Leaves obtuse, varying from 

 linear-lanceolate to Hnear-awl-shapcd, rather rigid ; scapes 10-12-«-ibbed (1°- 

 3° high; head hemispherical, becoming globular (2" -7" wide); scales of the 

 involucre actitish, straw-color or light brown; c/;f/j7"( bracts amotig the flowers) 

 pointed. (E. senJtinum, Walt.) — Pine-barren swamps (New Jersey ?) Virginia, 

 and southward. July - Sept. 



2. E. gnaphalodes, Michx. Leaves spreading (2' -5' long), grassy-nwl- 

 shaped, rigid, or when submersed thin and pellucid, tapering gradually to a 

 sharp point, mostly shorter than the sheath of the \0-ribbed scape; scales of the 

 involucre very obtuse, turning lead-color ; chaff obtuse. (E. decangulare, L., in 



