390 
JUNCACE^. 
[. Flagellaria . 
lanceolate acuminate, spreading, ending in a spiral tendril, -±—1 foot 
long, i-f in. broad. Flowers in a sessile terminal panicle 3-9 inches 
long and broad, with compound branches, in sessile clusters. Perianth 
in. long. Berry red, the size of a small pea. 
Mauritius and Seychelles, common in woods. Spread through the tropics of 
the Old World. Flagellaire. Rot in die pays. There are two varieties : one, glauca , 
Bojer, with large glaucous leaves, and the other, august if olia, Bojer, with green leaves 
j foot long, £ inch broad and smaller panicles. 
Order 01 ERIQCAULONEiE. 
Flowers monoicous, membranous, arranged in a dense head in the 
axils of imbricated bracts, the inner males, the outer females. Male 
perianth double ; outer of 2-3 free segments ; inner of the same 
number, connate in a funnel-shaped tube. Stamens inserted at the 
throat of the tube, as many or twice as many as the lobes of inner 
perianth. Female flowers of two rows of 2-3 free segments. Ovary 
superior ; cells 2-3, with a single ovule in each ; stigmas subulate, 
as many as the cells. Fruit a loculicidal capsule. Seed with embryo 
outside the albumen. — Acaulescent or caulescent herbs, with 
minute flowers. Distrib. Warmer regions of both hemispheres. 
Sp ecies 300. 
1. ERIOCAULON, Linn. 
Flowers 2-merous or 3-merous, in our plant (§ Nasmythia , Mart-) the 
former, with sepals and petals 2 each, the latter joined in a slender 
tube in the males. Male flower with 2 rudimentary carpels and 4 stamens 
inserted at the summit of the tube. Female Flower. Ovary 2-celled, with 
subulate simple stigmas. Capsule subglobose, membrauous. — Usually 
stemless herbs with leaves in a dense basal rosette and minute flowers 
in a globose head at the top of a naked scape, each subtended by a 
coriaceous bract. Distrib. Mainly tropics of Old World. Species 50. 
1. E. repens, Lam. ; Kunth , Enum. iii. 569. Densely tufted, with 
abundant root-fibres. Leaves linear, glossy, erect, crowded in a basal 
rosette, 3-6 in. long, closely ribbed. Scape very slender, ^-1 foot long, 
with 5 deep ribs, sheathed at the base with a leaf free at the top. 
Flowers in a dense globose head i in. diam. ; outer bracts glossy, 
round-deltoid ; inner cuneate, matted at the top with a patch of white 
tomentum. Flowers flattened, finally protruded from the bracts. 
E. quinquangulare, Bojer , Sort. Maur. 361, non Linn. E. longifo- 
lium, Sees ; Kunth , Enum. iii. 567. 
Mauritius, on the banks of the streams of Grand Bassin. Also Bourbon and 
Madagascar. 
