Eriacavlon.] LXXXVII. ERIOCAULE^l. 477 



leaves, 1 to 3 inches long. Peduncles from a couple of inches to above 

 a foot high, enclosed at the base in a long sheath. Flower-heads 2 

 to 4 lines diameter, with very numerous minute flowers. Bracts and 

 perianths of a leaden colour, tipped with a few minute chair-like hairs. 

 Perianth-segments 4, with a minute black gland on the 2 inner ones. 

 Stamens in the males 4. Stigmas and lobes of the ovary in the 

 females 2. 



A North American species, found in lakes of the isles of Skye, Coll, a 

 few of the neighbouring Hebrides, and the west coast of Ireland, but 

 not elsewhere in Europe. Fl. August. 



LXXXVIIL CYPERACE^. THE SEDGE FAMILY. 

 Herbs, resembling in aspect Juncacece, or more frequently 

 Graminecej but usually stiffer than the latter, with solid 

 [usually 3-angled] stems, and the sheaths of the leaves closed 

 all round. Flowers in little green or brown spikes, called 

 spikelets, which are either solitary and terminal or several in a 

 terminal (or apparently lateral), simple or compound cluster, 

 spike, umbel, or panicle. Each spikelet is placed in the axil of 

 8 scale-like or leafy outer bract, and consists of several scale- 

 like, imbricated bracts, called glumes, each containing in its axil 

 one sessile flower. Perianth either none or replaced by a few 

 bristles or minute scales. Stamens 3 or rarely 2. Ovary (in 

 the same or in a distinct glume) simple, 1-celled, the style more 

 or less deeply divided into 2 or 3 branches or linear stigmas. 

 Fruit a small, seed-like nut, flattened when the style is 2-cleft, 

 triangular when it is 3-cleft, containing a single seed. 



A large family, abundantly distributed all over the globe, but more 

 especially in moist situations or on the edges of waters. It is inter- 

 mediate as it were between Restiacece and Graminece, distinguished from 

 the former by the absence of any regular perianth, from Graminece 

 generally by the want of an inner scale or palea between the flower and 

 the axis of the spikelets ; by the simple, not feathery, branches of the 

 style ; besides that in most cases the two families are readily known by 

 the sheath of the leaves closed round the triangular stem in Cyperacece, slit 

 open on the side opposite to the blade in Graminece. The glumes are also 

 most frequently brown in the former, green or purplish in the latter. 



Flowers unisexual, the stamens and ovaries within separate 



glumes, either in the same or in separate spikelets. 

 Ovary enclosed in a little bottle-shaped utricle, the style 



protruding through a small aperture at the top . . 9. CARBZ. 

 Ovary partially enclosed in 1 or 2 glume-like scales, open at 



the side & EOBRESU. 



Flowers hermaphrodite, the stamens and ovaries within the 



same glume. 



Glumes in each spikelet arranged in two opposite rows. 

 All the glumes in each spikelet, except one outer one. 

 containing flowers. Spikelets many, In a compound 

 umbel . . 1. CYPKBOTL 



