CYPERACE2E. (SEDGE FAMILY.) 551 



Tribe I. SCIRPINE^E. Flowers normally perfect and alike, rarely some of them with 

 stamens or pistil abortive : spikes all of one sort. 



Sub tribe 1. Cypereee. Scales of the spike strictly 2-ranked, conduplicate and keeled 

 (in all our species). Spikes usually aggregated into clusters, heads, umbels, spikes, &c. 

 * Flower destitute of any bristles, also of any beak to the achenium. 



1. Cy perns. Spikes few -many -flowered, usually elongated or slender. 



2. Ky llingia. Spikes 1-flowered (but of 3 or 4 scales), glomerate in a sessile head. 



* Flower furnished with bristles : achenium beaked by the persistent base of the style. 



3. Dulichium. Spikes 6 - 10- flowered, slender, clustered on an axillary peduncle. 



Subtribe 2. Scirpeee. Scales of the spike or head imbricated all round, convex or 

 open, all or nearly all of them with a perfect flower in the axil. 



* Flower with one or more inner scales (either bractlets or perianth). 



4. Fuirena. Scales of the spike awned below the apex. Flower surrounded by 3 stalked 



petal-like scales alternating with 3 bristles. 



5. Lipocarpha. Flower enclosed by 2 inner scales, one next the axis and the other next 



the awnless scale of the spike. No bristles. 



6. Ht-micarplia. Flower with a single very minute inner and thin scale next the axis 



of the spike : no bristles. 



* * Flower without inner scales, either wholly naked or with some bristles (perianth). 



t- Bristles generally present. 



7. Eleocharis. Achenium with a tubercle jointed on its apex, consisting of the bulbous 



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



8. Scirpus. Achenium naked at the apex, or pointed with the continuous simple base of 



the style. Culms often leafy at the base or apex. Spikes one or more. 



9. Erioptiorum. Achenium, &c., as in Scirpus. Bristles after flowering exceedingly 



lengthened into cottony hairs. 



i- *- Bristles always none. 

 6. Hemicarpha will be looked for here when the minute inner scale is overlooked. 



10. Fimbi isty Its. Style bulbous at the base, or constricted at the junction, deciduous 



from the achenium (with or rarely without the jointed bulb). Culms leafy at the base, 

 and bracted at the summit, bearing usually several spikes. 



Subtribe 3. Rliynchosporeee. Scales of the spike or head imbricated in few or 

 several ranks, some of the lower commonly empty, and of the upper subtending abortive 

 or staminate flowers. No inner scales. 



11. Dichromena. Spikes crowded into a leafy-involucrate head, laterally flattened, the 



scales more or less conduplicate and keeled. Achenium crowned with a beak or tubercle 

 formed of the enlarged persistent base of the style. No bristles. 



12. Rliynt hosporu. Spikes terete or flattish, the scales convex, and either loosely 



enwrapping or regularly imbricated. Achenium crowned with a persistent tubercle 

 or beak, and at the base commonly surrounded by bristles. 



13. Claclium. Spikes terete, few-flowered, the scales, &c. as in the preceding. Achenium 



destitute of tubercle. No bristles. 



Tribe II. SCLERINE^. Flowers monoecious ; the staminate and pistillate in the 

 same or in different clustered spikes. Achenium naked, bony or crustaceous, supported 

 on a hardened disk. 



14. ScJeria. Spikes few -flowered: lower scales empty. No bristles, &c. 



Tribe III. CARICI]VE.flE. Flowers monoecious in the same (androgynous) or in sepa- 

 rate spikes, or sometimes dioecious. Achenium enclosed in a sac (perigynium'), which 

 answers to a single or a pair of inner scales or bractlets. 



15. Carex. No bristle-form hooked appendage projecting from the sac which encloses the 



achenium. 



