FAMILIES OF FLOWERING PLANTS. 41 
tufted herbs with slender, grass-like stems, terminated by a dense 
spike composed of brownish 
scales or bracts, from the axils 
of which appear a few small, 
evanescent, bright yellow flow- 
ers. The structure of the 
sepals and pistal is most beauti- 
ful, but very complicated, and 
it can be studied advantageous- 
ly only by a botanist. The 
stems are frequently twisted 
like a corkscrew, whence one of 
the species is called Xyris torta. 
Fsc. 86.—Mayaca (Mayaca Michaueii) showing The genus is scarcely repre- 
poet natural size, and enlarged flower. sented in the northern states, 
but numerous species are scat- 
tered over the southern pine barrens. 
Family Eriocaulonaceae. Pipewort Family. Six genera and 
about 350 species, widely distributed in tropical regions, and particu- 
larly abundant in South America. Three genera reach the Southern 
United States, and one species of Hiiocaulon extends even to New- 
foundland. The plants grow in bogs or shallow water, and farther 
South usually in moist pine barrens; they are scapose, with basal 
grass-like leaves, and long-peduncled globose heads of very small 
white or greenish flowers. The perianth is in two series, forming a 
distinct calyx and corolla, as may be seen in the enlarged flower in 
Figure 38. The family possesses no economic and little ornamental 
value. . 
Family Rapateaceae. Rapatea Family. A single genus, Rapatea, 
with about 20 South American species. They are rush-like. herbs, 
and were formerly classed with the true rushes (Juncaceae) but differ 
materially in certain structural characters. 
Family Bromeliaceae. Pineapple Family. Everyone who has 
visited the southern states has noticed and admired the graceful. south- 
ern moss, long moss or gray moss, as it is variously called. In 
Florida, too, a pineapple plantation is not an uncommon sight; and 
yet who would connect these two plants in any way if they had not 
chanced to observe the similarity of floral structure? 
There is much more diversity of habit among the Bromeliaceae 
