84 FLOWERS OF FIELD, HILL, AND SWAMP 



In the sandy marshes, with cranberry, sundew, and marsli St. 

 John's-wort, the little yellow dots of xyris are everywhere. It 

 rises tall, a foot or more, and with a somewhat flattened stem, 

 bearing at the top a small, brownish, nearly round head of scales. 

 If we call it a tiny pine-cone, no bigger than a small pea, we give 

 It as the naked eye sees it. From the top of this cone, or a little 

 to one side, spring i, 2, or 3 flowers, showing just 3 wide-open 

 golden petals. There are also 3 small sepals, one larger than the 

 others fringed with short hairs. The stem, and often the leaves, 

 are twisted. Botanically the little cone is a head of bracts, from 

 within each of which a blossom may spring. The flower withers 

 very soon after picking. 6 to 18 inches tall. 



100. Fringed Yellow-eyed Grass 



X. fimbricita is a large and taller species, 2 feet high, with a 

 more flattened, stouter stem, and a he:id of bracts over half 

 an inch, sometimes an inch, long. In this the lateral sepals 

 are fringed, and project beyond the bracts. 



Found in New Jersey pine barrens, southward to Florida. 



loi. Carolina Yellow-eyed Grass 



X. Carolinidna sends up scapes i to 2 feet tall, slender, twist- 

 ed or straight. Leaves, linear, quite long. Head of flowers 

 about \ inch long. Found along the Atlantic States and in 

 Pennsylvania. 



102. Broad-leaved Cat-tail 



Typha latifblia. — Family, Cat-tail. Color, brown. Leaves, 

 all near the base of the stem, long, narrow, sheathing. Time, 

 summer. 



The picturesque brown of the tall cat-tails begins to show it- 

 self in August. The long, round stem, from a creeping rootstock, 

 bearing the tails, may grow 5 or 6 feet in height. The dense, 

 cylindrical head of flowers bears neither petals nor sepals, but 

 bristles in their place, staminate flowers above, and pistillate be- 

 low. The pistils are supported upon long stalks which are cov- 



