CXil. CYPERACM 
551 
CXII. CYPERACE^E 
Perennial, rarely annual herbs with the aspect of Grasses but 
usually more rigid, sometimes rush-like ; stems solid, terete or 
angled. Leaves narrow, pointed, often sharply edged ; sheaths 
tubular, not split down one side as in the true grasses. Flowers 
male, female or 2 -sexual. Nut-bearing flowers 2-sexual in all gen- 
era, except Kobresia and Carex, in which they are female. Perfect 
perianth none, but in some genera represented by a fewhypogynous 
bristles or scales. Male flowers in all the genera consisting of 1-3 
stamens, filaments free, thread-like ; anthers linear, 2-celled, basi- 
fixed. Female and 2-sexual flowers : stamens, if present, as in the 
male flowers ; ovary 1 -celled, flattened and having 2-branched 
styles or 3 -sided and having 3 -branched styles ; ovule solitary, 
basal. In Kobresia the ovary is enclosed in a bract or utricle split 
nearly to its base on one side ; in Carex , in a bag-like bract or 
utricle ; in all other genera it is in the axil of a bract. Fruit a 
small, flattened or 3-sided nut ; embryo minute, at the very base of 
the nut, its position not indicated externally by a scar or spot as in 
the Grasses. Flowers solitary in the axils of small bracts or glumes 
combined in spikelets. Spikelets having the glumes arranged 
spirally round the axis or in two opposite rows, solitary or several 
or many, forming spikes, panicles, simple or compound umbels, 
corymbs or heads with a few spreading, rarely erect, leaf -like 
bracts at the base. — Nearly all regions, usually growing in damp 
or marshy ground. 
Plants of this Order and of the Graminece flower at almost all seasons. They 
mostly inhabit swamps and wet pastures, and several of the annual species of 
Cyperus form a conspicuous feature among the weeds of the rice-fields in the 
plains. 
A. Nut-bearing flowers containing perfect stamens 
* Glumes in two opposite rows 
Axis of fruiting spikelet disarticulating and falling off. 
Style 2-branched 
Style 3 -branched 
1. Kyllinga. 
4. Mariscus. 
Axis of fruiting spikelet persistent. 
Style 2-branched 
Style 3 -branched 
2. Pycreus . 
3. Gyperus. 
* * Glumes imbricated all round the axis 
Flowers with bristles or scales. 
Bristles 6-9, not longer than the glumes. 
Nut crowned by the swollen style-base 
Nut pointed ; style-base not swollen . 
5. Eleocharis. 
8. Scirpus. 1 
In some species of Scirpus bristles are present, in others they are absent. 
