Re g 
Special Morphology and Classification. 347 
are placed in different spikes on the same stem. Each flower stands 
in the axil of a bract, which is called a glume or pale, two of these 
Mo 
Fic. 465.—-Creeping rhizome of Carex (greatly reduced). 
pales usuaily occurring in each flower ; and then the inner one is either 
adherent to the rachis, or, as in Carex, is transformed into a sheathing 
bag or ztrecle enclosing the flower. The 
genera with hermaphrodite flowers are 
either entirely destitute of a perianth, as 
Cyperus (Fig. 466) and Cladium, or it is. 
composed of bristles, either few in number, 
as in Scerpus.and Rhynchospora, or in large 
numbers, and in that case forming a tuft of 
hairs closely resembling cotton-wool spring- 
ing from the inflorescence, as in the cotton- 
grass, Lrzphorum. In Carex the male 
flower consists of three stamens, the female 
flower of a tubular envelope, the utricle, 
surrounding the free ovary, which is gene- 
rally unilocular and one-seeded, but with 
three stigmas (Fig. 467).. The fruit is a 
caryopsis ; the small embryo is surrounded 
Fic. 466.—Flower of Cyperus 
longus with the parts sepa 
rated (magnified). 
by the floury endosperm. The rhizome of many Cyperacez is rich in 
starch and gelatine ; and that of Cyperus esculentus is used as an article 
