248 COMMON CANADIAN WILD PLANTS. 



naked scape 2-G inches high, growing in shallow water in 

 the . margins of our northern ponds. Leaves short, awl- 

 shaped, in a tuft at the base. Flowers in a small woolly 

 head at the summit of the scape, monoecious. Perianth 

 double ; the outer set or calyx of 2-3 keeled sepals ; the corolla 

 tubular in the sterile flowers and of 2-3 separate petals in 

 the fertile ones. Scape 7-angled. The head (except the 

 beard) lead-coloured. 



III. GLUMAOEOUS DIVISION. 



Flowers without a proper perianth, but subtended by 

 thin scales called glumes. 



This Division includes two very large Orders — Cyper- 

 acese and Graminese — both of which present many diffi- 

 culties to the beginner. Accordingly no attempt will be 

 made here to enumerate and describe all the commonly 

 occurring species of these Orders. In chapter XIV., 

 Part I., the student will find descriptions and illustra- 

 tions of several typical Grasses. We shall here, there- 

 fore, only describe two or three of the commonest repre- 

 sentatives of the Order Cyperacese, so as to put the 

 beginner in a position to continue his studies with the 

 aid of Gray's Manual or other advanced work. 



Oedbr ex. CYPERA'CE.S. (Sedob Family.) 



Grass-like or rush-like herbs, easily distinguished from 

 Grasses by the sheaths of the leaves, which in the Sedges are 

 closed round the elum, not split. Flowers in spikes, each 

 flower in the axil of a glume-like bract, either altogether 

 without a perianth or with a few bristles or scales inserted 

 below the ovary. Ovary 1-celled, becoming an achene (2- 

 or 3-angled). Style 2- or 3-cleft. Stamens mostly 3, ocoa^ 

 sionally 2. . _ 



