476 THE SEDGE FAMILY. 
into 2 or 3 branches or linear stigmas. Fruit a small, seed-like 
nut, flattened when the style is 2-cleft, triangular when it is 
3-cleft, containing a single seed. 
A large family, abundantly distributed all over the globe, but more espe- | 
cially in moist situations or on the edges of waters, It is intermediate as 
it were between Restiace@ and Gramineae, distinguished from the former 
by the absence of any regular perianth, from Graminee generally by the 
want of an inner scale or palea between the flower and the axis of the 
spikelets; by the simple, not feathery, branches of the style ; besides that 
in most cases the two families are readily known by the sheath of the 
leaves closed round thestem in Cyperacea, slit open on the side opposite to 
the blade in Gramineae. The glumes are also most frequently brown in the 
former, green or purplish in the latter. 
Flowers unisexual, the stamens and ovaries within separate 
glumes, either in the same or in separate spikelets. 
Ovary enclosed in a little bottle-shaped utricle, the style pro- 
truding through a small aperture at the top ‘ 9, CAREX. 
Ovary partially enclosed in 1 or 2 glume- “tke ieee open at 
the side . 8. KoBRESIA. 
Flowers hermaphrodite, the stamens and ‘ovaries within the 
‘same glume. 
Glumes in each spikelet arranged in two opposite rows. 
All the glumes in each spikelet, except one outer one, con- 
taining flowers. Spikelets many, in a compound 
umbel . 1. CyPERUS. 
Several of the lower glumes of each spikelet smaller and 
empty. Spikelets closely sessile, in compact terminal 
heads . : - « 2 Scuanvs. 
Glumes in each spikelet imbricated all round the axils. 
Spikelets sessile, in a terminal spike, arranged in 2 OnPe 
site rows 5, BLYSMUS 
Spikelets solitary, or in heads, clusters, umbels, or 
panicles. 
Several of the lower glumes of each spikelet smaller and 
empty. Only 2 or 3 flowers at the top of each 
spikelet. 
Spikelets very numerous, in a comanOnne panicle. 
Style-branches 3. : 3. CLADIUM. 
Spikelets few, in 1 or 2 terminal or pedunculate 
clusters. Style-branches 2 . 4, RHYNCHOSPORA. 
All the glumes of the spikelet, excepting one outer larger 
one, containing flowers. 
Hypogynous bristles (within the glume round the 
flowers) projecting far beyond the aes and 
forming long cottony or silky tufts . 4 7. ERIOPHORUM. 
Hypogynous bristles shorter than the glumes or ‘none 6. Scirpus. 
1. CYPERUS. CYPERUS. 
Stems triangular, leafy at the base. Spikelets in clusters or heads, 
usually several together, one of them sessile, the others stalked, in a 
terminal, irregular, umbel-like panicle, with an involucre of one or more 
leaf-like outer bracts, Glumes several in each spikelct, regularly arranged 
in two opposite rows, all nearly equal, with one flower in each glume. 
Stamens and ovary under the same glume, without hypogynous bristles. 
A very large tropical genus, represented by very few species in tem- 
perate regions, and quite disappearing in the extreme north and south. 
oA 
