190 Field, Forest, and Wayside Flowers 
above the first and the fifth above the second, 
so that if one should draw a line through the 
bases of the leaves it would intersect three in 
the course of one complete spiral turn. 
The number three dominates the sedges through- 
out their organization. It occurs repeatedly, or is 
traced obscurely, in their flowers, for they are 
lily-kin. Inferentially the ancestors of all the 
sedges had three pistils, or a single pistil divid- 
ing into three stigmas, three stamens, or six, in 
two trios, three petals, and three sepals. They 
were, in many respects, like the rushes of to- 
day. 
But their descendants have departed, more or 
less widely, from the ancient family traditions. 
For some species have but two stigmas, whole 
groups have two stamens, or manage to get along 
with one, and two tribes bear stamens in one 
flower and pistils in another. 
Sedge-blossoms grow in spikes, clumps, or clus- 
ters, massed together so closely that their calyxes 
and corollas, when they possess any, are utterly in- 
effective. 
But as the wind is their sole messenger, nowa- 
days, there is no reason why they should allure 
and charm insects, as their ancestors may have 
