LXXXVII. RESTIACEA. ATS - 
ovary or capsule, and suspended from the rele not erect from 
the base as in Luzula. 
An Order, when taken in its extended sense, containiug many Australian 
and South African genera, with a much more rush-like or sedge-like habit 
than the only British genus, which, with a few nearly allied American 
genera, is now generally separated as a distinct order under the name of 
Eriocaulee. 
I. ERIOCAULON. ERIOCAULON. 
Aquatic or marsh plants, with tufted leaves. Peduncles leafless, with a 
terminal globular head of minute flowers; the central ones chiefly males, 
the outer ones chiefly females; all intermixed with small bracts, of which 
the outer ones are rather larger, forming an involucre round the head. 
Perianth very delicate, of 4 or 6 segments, the 2 or 3 inner ones in the 
males united to near the summit. Stamens in the males as many or half 
as many as the perianth-segments. Capsule in the females 2- or 3-lobed, 
and 2- or 3-celled. Style single, with 2 or 3 stigmas. 
A large genus, widely distributed over the globe, numerous in South 
America, and extending over that continent to the Arctic circle, general 
in tropical Asia, Africa, and Australia, but wholly wanting in Russian Asia 
and Europe, with the exception of the single British station. 
1, B. septangulare, With. (fig. 1080). Jointed Hriocaulon.— 
The slender rootstock creeps in the mud under water, emitting numerous 
white, jointed fibres, and tufts of linear, very pointed, soft and pellucid 
leaves, 1 to 3 inches long. Peduncles from a couple of inches to above a 
foot high, enclosed at the base in a long sheath. Flower-heads 2 to 4 
lines diameter, with very numerous minute flowers. Bracts and perianths 
of a leaden colour, tipped with a few minute chaff-like hairs. Perianth- 
segments 4, with a minute black gland on the 2 inner ones. Stamens in 
the males 4. Stigmas and lobes of the ovary in the females 2. 
A North American species, found in lakes of the isles of Skye, Coll, a 
few of the neighbouring Hebrides, and the west coast of Ireland, but not 
elsewhere in Europe. fl, August. 
LXXXVIII. CYPERACEA. THE SEDGE FAMILY. 
Herbs, resembling in aspect Juncacew, or more frequently 
Graminee, but usually stiffer than the latter, with solid stems, 
and the sheaths of the leaves closed all round. Flowers in 
little green or brown spikes, called spekelets, which are either 
solitary and terminal or several in a terminal (or apparently 
lateral), simple or compound cluster, spike, umbel, or panicle. 
Each spikelet is placed in the axil of a scale-like or leafy outer 
bract, and consists of several scale-like, imbricated bracts, called 
glumes, each containing in its axil one sessile flower. Perianth 
either none or replaced by a few bristles or minute scales, 
Stamens 3 or rarely 2. Ovary (in the same or in a distinct 
glume) simple, 1-celled, the style more or less deeply divided 
