490 CTPERACE^. (sedge FAMILY.) 



Order 133. CYPERACE-aE. (Sed&e Familt.) 



Grass-like or Tush-lUce herbs ^ with fibrous roots and solid stems (culms), 

 closed sheaths, and spiked chiefiy S~androtis flowers^ one in the axil of each 

 of the glume-like imbricated bracts (scales, glumes), destitute of any perianth, 

 or with hypogynous bristles or scales in its place; the l-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. 



Synopsis. 



Tribe I. CYPERE^. Flowers perfect, 2-ranked{di8tichou8), 1-many-flowered- 



1. CYPBRUS. Spikes few - many-flowered, usually elongated or slender. Perianth none. 



2. KYLLINGUA, Spikes 1-flowered, glomerate in a sessile head. Perianth none 



3. DULICHIUM. Spikes 6 - 10-flowered. Perianth of 6 - 10 bristles. Achenium beaked. 



Tbibb II. HYPOI^YTREiE. Flowers perfect ; the scales many-ranked : each flower 

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



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



Teibe m. SCIRPEJE. Flowers perfect ; the scales regularly several-ranked, eachcoT- 

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



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

 6 SCIKPUS. 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. ERIOPHOEUM. 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 achenium. 

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



9. FUIRENA. Scale.s of the spike awned below the apex Achenium triangular, pointed 



with the base of the style. 



Tribe TV. RHYNCHOSPORE.^. Flowers perfect or polygamous Scales of the 

 few-flowered spikes irregularly seTcral-ranked, many of tiie 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 wrinkled transversely. 



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



11. DICHROMENA. Spikes few-flowered, flattened, crowded into a leafy-involucrate head. 



■t- -I- Perianth of bristles or awns, rarely wanting 

 12 CBRATOSCHCENUS. Style simple, all persistent in the awned beak of the flat achenium. 



13. RHYNCHOSPORA. Style 2-cleft, the base only persistent as a tubercle on the achenium, 



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



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



Tribe V, SCJLERIE.^. Flowers monoecious : the fertile spikes 1-flowcred ; the stam* 

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

 16- SCLERIA. Achenium bony or crustaceous. Proper perianth none 



