Flowers very small, solitary, but often cl.u.s.tered with the branch-leaves in the axils; in summer. (?a???, _a water-nymph_.)

1. N. marna, L. _Stem rather stout and often armed with broad p.r.i.c.kles; leaves broadly linear_ (3--18" long), _coa.r.s.ely and sharply toothed_, the dilated base entire; fruit 2--2" long; _seed very finely lineate, oblong_, slightly compressed. (N. major, _All._)--Marshes and salt-springs of western N. Y. and Mich. Teeth of one or more brownish cells upon a many-celled base. (Eu.)

Var. gracilis, Morong. Internodes long (1--3') and nearly naked, with only a few teeth above; leaves very narrow, the dilated base also toothed; fruit smaller.--Canoga marshes, western N. Y.; also in Fla.

Var. recurvata, Dudley. Stems short, inclined to be dichotomously branched, recurved-spreading; leaves usually recurved, the teeth prominent, the dilated base with a projecting tooth each side.--Cayuga marshes, N. Y.

2. N. flexilis, Rostk. & Schmidt. _Stems usually very slender; leaves very narrowly linear_ (--1' long), _very minutely serrulate_; fruit 1" long, narrowly oblong; _seeds lance-oval, smooth and shining_.--Ponds and slow streams, N. Scotia to S. C., Iowa and Minn.

Teeth on the margins of the leaves 1-celled. (Eu.)--Var. ROBuSTA, Morong. Stem stout, few-leaved, spa.r.s.ely branching, elongated; leaves flat, abruptly acute.--E. Ma.s.s., Mich., and Tex.

3. N. indica, Cham., var. gracillima, A. Br. Branches alternate; _leaves_ very narrowly linear, _nearly capillary_, straight, _serrate, the rounded lobes of the sheathing base spinulose-ciliate; fruit linear, impressed-dotted between the numerous ribs_.--Ma.s.s. to Penn., west to Ind. and Mo. Teeth of 3 cells each.

ORDER 127. ERIOCAuLEae. (PIPEWORT FAMILY.)

_Aquatic or marsh herbs, stemless or short-stemmed, with a tuft of fibrous roots, a cl.u.s.ter of linear and often loosely cellular gra.s.s-like leaves, and naked scapes sheathed at the base, bearing dense heads of moncious or rarely dicious small 2--3-merous flowers, each in the axil of a scarious bract; the perianth double or rarely simple, chaffy; anthers introrse_; the fruit a _2--3-celled 2--3-seeded capsule_; seeds pendulous, orthotropous; embryo at the apex of mealy alb.u.men.--Chiefly tropical plants, a few in northern temperate regions.

1. Eriocaulon. Perianth double, the inner (corolla) tubular-funnel-form in the staminate flowers; stamens twice as many as its lobes (4).

Anthers 2-celled.

2. Paepalanthus. Perianth as in the last; stamens only as many as the corolla-lobes (3). Anthers 2-celled.

3. Lachnocaulon. Perianth simple, of 3 sepals. Stamens 3, monadelphous below. Anthers 1-celled.

1. ERIOCAuLON, L. PIPEWORT.

Flowers moncious and androgynous, i.e. both kinds in the same head, either intermixed, or the central ones sterile and the exterior fertile, rarely dicious. _Ster. Fl._ Calyx of 2 or 3 keeled or boat-shaped sepals, usually spatulate or dilated upward. Corolla tubular, 2--3-lobed, each of the lobes bearing a black gland or spot. Stamens twice as many, one inserted at the base of each lobe and one in each sinus; anthers 2-celled. Pistils rudimentary. _Fert. Fl._ Calyx as in the sterile flowers, often remote from the rest of the flower (therefore perhaps to be viewed as a pair of bractlets). Corolla of 2 or 3 separate narrow petals. Stamens none. Ovary often stalked, 2--3-lobed, 2--3-celled; style 1; stigmas 2 or 3, slender. Capsule membranaceous, loculicidal.--Leaves mostly smooth, loosely cellular and pellucid, flat or concave above. Scapes or peduncles terminated by a single head, involucrate by some outer empty bracts. Flowers, also the tips of the bracts, etc., usually white-bearded or woolly. (Name compounded of ?????, _wool_, and ?a????, _a stalk_, from the wool at the base of the scape.)--Our species are all stemless, wholly glabrous excepting at the base and the flowers, with a depressed head and dimerous flowers.

1. E. decangulare, L. _Leaves obtuse_, varying from linear-lanceolate to linear-awl-shaped, rather rigid; scapes 10--12-ribbed (1--3 high); head hemispherical, becoming globular (2--7" wide); scales of the involucre acutish, straw-color or light brown; _chaff_ (bracts among the flowers) _pointed_.--Pine-barren swamps, N. J. to Fla. July--Sept.

2. E. gnaphaldes, Michx. _Leaves spreading_ (2--5' long), _gra.s.sy-awl-shaped_, rigid, or when submersed thin and pellucid, tapering gradually to a _sharp point_, mostly shorter than the sheath of the _10-ribbed scape_; scales of the involucre very obtuse, turning lead-color; _chaff obtuse_.--Pine-barren swamps, N. J. to Fla.

3. E. septangulare, Withering. _Leaves short_ (1--3' long), _awl-shaped, pellucid_, soft and very cellular; _scape 4--7-striate_, slender, 2--6'

high, or when submersed becoming 1--6 long, according to the depth of the water; _chaff acutish_; head 2--3" broad; the bracts, chaff, etc., lead-color, except the white coa.r.s.e beard.--In ponds or along their borders, Newf. to N. J., west to Ind., Mich., and Minn. July, Aug. (Eu.)

2. PaePALaNTHUS, Martius.

Stamens as many as the (often involute) lobes of the funnel-form corolla of the sterile flowers, and opposite them, commonly 3, and the flower ternary throughout. Otherwise nearly as in Eriocaulon. (Name from pa?p???, _dust_ or _flour_, and ?????, _flower_, from the meal-like down or scurf of the heads and flowers of many South American species.)

1. P. flavidulus, Kunth. Tufted, stemless; leaves bristle-awl-shaped (1'

long); scapes very slender, simple, minutely p.u.b.escent (6--12' high), 5-angled; bracts of the involucre oblong, pale straw-color, those among the flowers mostly obsolete; perianth glabrous; sepals and petals of the fertile flowers linear-lanceolate, scarious-white.--Low pine-barrens, S.

Va. to Fla.

3. LACHNOCAuLON, Kunth. HAIRY PIPEWORT.

Flowers moncious, etc., as in Eriocaulon. Calyx of 3 sepals. Corolla none! _Ster. Fl._ Stamens 3; filaments below coalescent into a club-shaped tube around the rudiment of a pistil, above separate and elongated; anthers 1-celled! _Fert. Fl._ Ovary 3-celled, surrounded by 3 tufts of hairs (in place of a corolla). Stigmas 3, two-cleft.--Leaves linear-sword-shaped, tufted. Scape slender, bearing a single head, 2--3-angled, hairy. (Name from ??????, _wool_, and ?a????, _stalk_.)

1. L. Michauxii, Kunth.--Low pine-barrens, Va. to Fla.

ORDER 128. CYPERaCEae. (SEDGE FAMILY.)

_Gra.s.s-like or rush-like herbs, with fibrous roots, mostly solid stems_ (culms), _closed sheaths, and spiked chiefly 3-androus flowers, one in the axil of each of the glume-like imbricated bracts _(scales, glumes)_, dest.i.tute of any perianth, or with hypogynous bristles or scales in its place; the 1-celled ovary with a single erect anatropous ovule, in fruit forming an achene._ Style 2-cleft with the fruit flattened or lenticular; or 3-cleft and fruit 3-angular. Embryo minute at the base of the somewhat floury alb.u.men. Stem-leaves when present 3-ranked.--A large, widely diffused family.

I. Flowers all perfect, rarely some of them with stamens or pistal abortive; spikes all of one sort.

Tribe I. SCIRPEae. Spikelets mostly many-flowered, with only 1 (rarely 2) of the lower scales empty.

[*] Scales of the spikelet strictly 2-ranked, conduplicate and keeled.

[+] Flowers dest.i.tute of bristles and of beak to the achene, inflorescence terminal.

1. Cyperus. Spikelets few--many-flowered, usually elongated or slender.

2. Kyllinga. Spikelets 1-flowered (but of 3 or 4 scales), glomerate in a sessile head.

[+][+] Flower furnished with bristles; achene beaked; inflorescence axillary.

3. Dulichium. Spikelets 6--10-flowered, slender, cl.u.s.tered on an axillary peduncle.

[*][*] Scales of the several--many-flowered spikelet imbricated all round (subdistichous in n. 5).

[+] Achene crowned with the bulbous persistent base of the style (usually deciduous in n. 7); flowers without inner scales (bractlets).

[++] Hypogynous bristles (perianth) generally present; culm naked.

4. Eleocharis. Spikelets solitary, terminating the culm. Stamens 3.

[++][++] Bristles always none; culm leafy.

5. Dichromena. Spikelets crowded into a leafy-involucrate head, laterally flattened, the scales more or less conduplicate and keeled.

Many of the flowers imperfect or abortive.

6. Psilocarya. Spikelets in broad open cymes. Style almost wholly persistent.

7. Fimbristylis. Spikelets in an involucrate umbel. Culm leafy at base.

Style usually wholly deciduous.

[+][+] Style not bulbous at base.

[++] Flowers without inner scales, but bristles generally present.

8. Scirpus. Spikelets solitary or cl.u.s.tered, or in a compound umbel, the stem often leafy at base and inflorescence involucrate. Barbed bristles 3--8 or none. Stamens mostly 3.

9. Eriophorum. As Scirpus, but the bristles naked, exserted and often silky in fruit. Stamens 1--3.