880 LV. GEAMINE^. 



latter essentially differ in their 3-celled fruit, and their orthotropous ovule suspended from the top of 

 the cell. 



OyperacecB are spread over the world, and especially in the cold regions of the northern hemisphere ; 

 they are gregarious in marshy plains, damp meadows, and the dry slopes of high mountains. They 

 are less frequent in maritime estuaries. Carex and Scirpus diminish in number as we approach the 

 equator ; the contrary is the case with Oyperm, which abounds on the shores of large tropical livers, and 

 in the clearings of virgin forests. Cyperacece are less abundant in the southern hemisphere, where they 

 are replaced by JRestiacecs. 



Cyperacees differ from Graminece in possessing but little sugar and starch ; their leaves and stem 

 contain no juice, and form but poor pasturage. The rhizomes of some species contain a bitter 

 principle and a volatile oil, together with a little starch, whence they rank as resolvents and diuretics, 

 The bitter and slightly camphorate rhizomes of our Carices were formerly used (especially those of 

 C arenaria, which sometimes attain a very great length) in herpetic and syphilitic cachexy, as a 

 substitute for Sarsaparilla. The stock of Seirpus lacustris is astringent and diuretic. Semirea maritima, 

 common in tropical America, posaesaes the same qualities in a high degree. The herbage of Eriophorum 

 was formerly administered for dysentery, and the spongy pith of ita stem ia considered by the German 

 peasants efficacious against tsenia. The tubers of Cyperus Imigus, rotundus, and some of their con- 

 geners, growing in South Europe and the hot parts of Asia, are aromatic, bitter, tonic and stimulating. 

 The root of Kyllingia triceps is prescribed in India for diabetes. The tubers of Cyperus esculentus, a 

 native of Africa, cultivated by the ancient Egyptians, and mentioned by Theophrastes, contain, besides 

 starch, a notable quantity of sweet oil, which seldom occurs in subterranean organs ; these tubers 

 yield a nourishing food, and are reputed aphrodisiac. The tubers are mohiliform in C. articulatus, 

 a native of the tropics of both worlds ; hence its common name of Paternoster. Our maritime Scirpi 

 (as S. tuberosiis) bear starchy and edible tubers at the tips of their rootlets. In Egypt the stems of 

 Cyperus dives and dtopecuroidcs are used in the fabrication of very fine mats, preferable to those of straw 

 on account of their freshness. In France the best mattresses are made with the stems of Seirpus lacustris ; 

 this plant undergoes a singular modification in running water, being changed into a fioating ribbon-like 

 phyllode. In the south the long stems of Carex nervosa are used in chair-making. Finally, this family 

 includes the Papyrus {Papyrus antiquorum), which grows in the swamps of Upper Egypt [and other parts 

 of tropical Africa], and from which the ancients made paper by slicing the culm horizontally, pressing 

 and hammering, and thus flattening the slices, so as to form a sheet, which was then smoothed with an 

 ivory instrument. 



LV. GRAMINEJE, Jussieu. 

 [Geamina, Juss, — Geamine^, U. Br. — Gbaminaoe^, Lindl.'] 



Flowers gliimaceous, in sjpikelets, usually 5 . Pekianth imperfect or 0. Stamens 

 hypogynous, usually 3, rarely less or more; anthers dorsifixed. Ovakt free, l-celled, 

 1-ovuled; ovule parietal, semi-anatropous. Cabtopsis. Albumen farinaceous. 

 Embeto basilar, outside the albumen. — Stems usually knotted. Leaves with a split 

 sheath, usually ligulate. 



Annuals or perennials, usually herbaceous, csespitose, rarely suffrutescent, 

 frutescent or arborescent ; witb fibrous roots or a creeping rhizome, often stoloni- 

 ferous at the radical nodes. Stem {culm) cylindric, rarely compressed, fistular, or 

 sometimes solid, usually jointed at the insertion of the leaves ; nodes annular, solid, 

 swollen, rarely contracted [Molinia), simple, or branched from the evolution of an 

 axillary bud with its primary leaf next the stem. Leaves alternate, distichous, 

 springing from the nodes ; petiole dilated, convolute, sheathing the stem ; 



