SEDGE FAMILY. 465 



III. Glumaceous Division. 



Flowers inclosed or subtended by glumes or husk-like 

 bracts ; no proper calyx or corolla, except sometimes mi- 

 nute bristles or scales which represent the perianth. Stems 

 of the straw-like sort, called culms. 



CXXXIII. CYPERACEiE, SEDGE FAMILY. 



Some rush-like, others grass-like plants, with floAvers 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 Avhich imitates a perianth; the 1-celled 1- 

 ovrded ovary in fruit an akeue. Divisions of the style 2 when 

 the akene is flattish or lenticular, or 3, when it is usually tri- 

 angular. 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, and too difficult for the 

 beginner. The most prominent genera are tke following: 



* Flowers commonly all perfect. 



•*- Spikelets nsualhj many-flowered with only one or two of the lower 

 scales without flowers. 



++ Scales 2-ranked, the spikelet therefore flat. 



= No bristles about the akene, and no beak at its top. 



1. CYPERUS. Spikelets few-maiiy-flowered, mostly flat and slender, 

 in simple or compound terminal umbels or heads. Culms mostly tri- 

 angular and simple, most of the leaves at the base. Many species in 

 low grounds ; three should be mentioned here : 



C. rotundus, JAnu. Nut Grass, Coco Grass. A bad weed in sandy 

 lands from L. I., 8. ; early leaves grass-like and tufted, .3'-6' high, followed 

 later in the season by a single, leafless, triangular culm, 6'-20' high ; 

 umbel simple or slightly compound, about equaling its iuvolucral leaves, 

 its rays few, and each one bearing 4-9 dark-chestnut, 12-40-flowered, 

 acute spikelets ; scales nerveless. The plant is introduced in the N. 

 It persists in the soil by moans of little, nut-like tubers which are borne 

 from several inches to 4° away from the base of plant, on stolons. 



C. escul^ntus, Linn. Chuka. Cultivated, especially at the S., for 

 its edibh' tubers, which are clustered about the ba.se of the plant, and 

 also wild ; early leaves 15'-30' high, sliglitly rough, about as long as the 

 stem ; umbel 4-7-rayed, sometimes compound, nuich shorter than the 

 iuvolucral leaves ; spikelets numerous and light colored, 12-80-flowered, 

 the scales nerved. The cultivated form rarely flowers in the N. 



gray's F. F. & G. EOT. uU 



