THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 27 
BOTANY FOR BEGINNERS —XXIII. 
Order 7 — Xyridales. 
"^JEXT to the great Arum family, in most systems of 
classification, comes a queer group of diverse forms, 
that the botanist in temperate regions is likely to know little 
about. We have representatives of most of the families, to 
be sure, but the great bulk of the species are inhabitants of 
the tropics. These species have a curious predilection for 
the American tropics. Some whole families are exclusively 
American and the others are most abundant on our side of 
the world. These families are at present grouped into the 
order Xyridales, but were formerly called the Farinosae. 
The seeds in most of the species consist of a tiny embrj'-o 
surrounded by a great Cjuantity of mealy albumen and this 
circumstance gave to the order the name formerly used. 
Besides the yellow-eyed grasses (Xyris), whose generic 
name gives the present name to the order, the group is repre- 
sented in our latitudes by the pipeworts ( Eriocaulaceae) , the 
wild pines (Bromeliaceae), the spiderworts (Commelin- 
aceae) and the pickerel weeds (Pontederiaceae). Our species 
are, in every instance, the hardiest members of their race, but 
seldom extend their territory very far northward. Many of 
them, indeed, get no farther than our Southern States. This 
is particularly true of the Bromeliaceae. In most of the 
plants, no matter in what part of the earth they occur, a 
decided liking for a watery habitat is seen. This is most 
noticeable with us in the pickerel weed and pipewort. Such 
members as do not take kindly to the water often go to the 
other extreme and become xerophytes. X'early all the Brom- 
eliaceae are epiphytes and so constructed that they can go a 
long time without water. 
In structure the flowers approach the typical mono- 
cotyledon flower. In most cases the perianth is divided into 
