ORDER CXXXVm. ERIOCAULONACE.E. ORDER CXL. GRAMINE.E. 



129 



barren, 3 with extrorse anthers. Ovary 1-celled, with 3 parietal 



placentae; or 3-celled. Styles 3, partially united. Stigmas 

 lobed. Capsule many-seeded. 



A small and chiefly tropical order, represented bere by several species of 

 Xyris (Yellow-eyed Grass). 



GROUP VIII. 

 ORDER CXXXVIII. Eriocaulonaceee. 



Perennial, aquatic herbs. Leaves linear, spongy, sheathing 

 at base. Flowers monoecious, or dioecious, in dense, hemispheri- 

 cal heads. Perianth 2 6-parted, or wanting. Stamens 6, either 

 all perfect, or some of them abortive. Anthers 1-celled. Ovary 

 either 1 or more-celled; cells 1-seeded. 



A very small, chiefly 8. American order, of which Eriocaulon (Pipeworf) 

 Is aa example. 



GROUP IX. 

 ORDER CXXXIX. Cyperacese. 



Herbs, usually perennial, coarse, grassy, csespitose plants. 

 Culms usually solid, without joints or nodes, mostly triangular. 

 Leaves with entire sheaths, sometimes wanting. Flowers soli- 

 tary, each in the axil of a glume-like bract. Perianth wanting, 

 or else reduced to mere bristles. Stamens usually 3, sometimes 

 2, or 1. Styles 2 3, more or less united. Fruit an achenium. 



Fig. 38. 



Fig. 89. 



A very large order of coarse grass-Hke unimportant plants, growing in wet 

 places and swamps throughout the world, bat most abundantly in the cooler 

 portions. They are applied to very few uses, notwithstanding their abundance, 



17 



and though cattle feed on them, they afford little nutriment. Cyporus dian- 

 drus, fig. 33, Scirpus lacustris, fig. 89, and Carex tentaculata, fig. 4j are Illus- 

 trations of the more abundant forms. 



Fig. 40. 



ORDER CXL. Grammeae. 



Perennial herbs with fibrous roots, rarely arising from bulbs, 

 .sometimes annual or biennial. Culms cylindrical, usually fistu- 



Fig. 41. 



lar, closed at the nodes, sometimes solid. Leaves entire, usually 

 narrow, alternate, with the sheath split from one node down to 



