490 CYPERACEJC. (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-Wee imbricated bracts (scales, glumes), destitute of any perianth, 

 or with hypoyynous bristles or scales in its place; the 1-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. See Addend. 



Synopsis. 



TRIBE I. CYPERE.E. Flowers perfect, 2-ranked. Spikclets 1 - uiany-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 



8. DULICIIIUM. Spikes 6 - 10 flowered. Perianth of 6 10 bristles. Achenium beaked. 



TRIBE II. HYPOLYTREJE. Flowers perfect ; the scales many-ranked : each flower 

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



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



TRIBE III. SCIRPE JE. 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). 



5. ELEOCIIARIS. Achenium with a tubercle jointed ou its apex, consisting of the bulbous 



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

 8. 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 acheuium. 



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

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

 with the base of the style 



TBIBE IV. RHYNCHOSPORE.K. Flowers perfect or polygamous. Scales of the 

 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. 

 - Perianth none : style 2-cleft : achenium wriukled transversely. 



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



11. DICHROMEXA. Spikes few-flowered, flattened, crowded into a leafy -in volucrate head. 



*- -i- Perianth of bristles or awns, rarely wanting 

 12 CERATOSCIKENUS. Style simple, all persistent in the awned beak of the flat acheuiuni. 



13. KIIYNC1IOSPORA. Style 2-cleft, the base only persistent as a tubercle ou the acheuiuia. 



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



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



TUIBJB V. SCL.ERIE JE. Flowers monoecious : the fertile spikes 1-flowereU ; the stam 



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

 15 SCLEUIA. Acherium bony or crustaceou*. Proper perianth none. 



