490 CYPERACE^E. (SEDGE FAMILY.) 



ORDER 133. CYPERACE^E. (SEDGE FAMILY.) 



Grass-like or rush-like herbs, with fibrous roots and solid stems (culms), 

 closed sheaths, and spiked chiefly 3-androus flowers, one in the axil of each 

 of the glume-like imbricated bracts (scales, glumes), destitute of any perianth, 

 or with hypogynous bristles or scales in its place ; the l-celled ovary with a 

 single erect anatropous ovule, in fruit forming an achenium. Style 2-cleft 

 when the fruit is flattened or lenticular, or 3-cleft when it is 3-angular 

 Embryo minute at the base of the somewhat floury albumen. Stem-leaves 

 when present 3-ranked. A large, widely diffused family. 



Synopsis. 



TRIBE I. CYPEREJE. Flowers perfect, 2-ranked (distichous), 1 - many-flowered. 

 1. CYPERUS. Spikes few- many-flowered, usually elongated or slender. Perianth none. 

 2 KYLLINGIA. Spikes 1-flowered, glomerate in a sessile head. Perianth none 



3. DULICHIUM. Spikes 6 - 10-flowered. Perianth of 6 - 10 bristles. Achenium beaked. 



TRIBE II. HYPO!L YTRE.3E. Flowers perfect ; the scales many-ranked : each flower 

 provided with its own (1 - 4) proper scale-like bractlets. True perianth none. 



4. HEMICARPHA. Bractlet or inner scale 1, very small. Stamen 1. Style 2-cleft. 



TRIBE III. SCIRPE.3E. Flowers perfect ; the scales regularly several-ranked, each cov- 

 ering a naked flower, or only the lowest empty. Perianth of bristles or hairs, or none. 

 * Perianth of hypogynous bristles or hairs (rarely obsolete or wanting). 



6 . ELEOCHARIS. Achenium with atubercle jointed on its apex, consisting of the bulbous 



persistent base of the style. Head solitary, terminating the leafless and bractless culm. 

 6 SCIRPUS. Achenium naked at the apex, or pointed with the continuous simple base of 

 the style. Perianth of 3 - 6 bristles. Culms leafy at the base Heads one or more. 



7. ERIOPHORUM. Achenium, &c., as in Scirpus. Perianth of long and tufted woolly hairs. 



* * Perianth none. 



8. FIMBRISTYLIS. Style bulbous at the base, deciduous (with or rarely without the jointed 



bulb) from the achenium. 



* * * Perianth of 3 large scales, and mostly as many alternating bristles 

 . FUIRENA. Scales of the spike awned below the apex Achenium triangular, pointed 

 with the base of the style. 



TRIBE IV. RHYNCHOSPORKJE. Flowers perfect or polygamous Scales of th 

 few-flowered spikes irregularly several-ranked, many of the lower ones empty, and often 

 the upper sterile. Perianth of bristles or none. Stems leafy. 



* Achenium beaked with the dilated persistent style or. its base. 

 H- Perianth none : style 2-cleft : achenium wrinkled transversely. 



10. PSILOCARYA. Spikes many-flowered, terete, ovoid, cymose, naked 



11. DICHROMENA. Spikes few-flowered, flattened, crowded into a leafy-involucrate head 



<- - Perianth of bristles or awns, rarely wanting 

 12 CERATOSCHCENUS. Style simple, all persistent in the awned beak of the flat achenium 



13. RHYNCHOSPORA. Style 2-cleft, the base only persistent as a tubercle on the acheniun; 



* * Achenium without a beak or tubercle ; the style deciduous. 



14. CLADIUM. Achenium globular, corky or pointed at the summit. Perianth none. 



TRIBE V. SCI^ERIE^l. Flowers monrecious : the fertile spikes 1-flowered ; the stem* 

 inate several-flowered. Achenium nut-like, mostly crustaceous. 



15. SCLERIA. Achenium bony or crustaceous. Proper perianth none. 



