_Cladium_ and _Rhynchospora_ (Beak-rush) differs especially in the _few_-flowered, compound spikelets which are collected into small bunches; the latter has received its name from the fact that the lowermost portion of the style remains attached to the fruit as a beak. 2. Spikelets compressed, the bracts arranged only in _two rows_; the other characters as in the first-mentioned. _Cyperus_ (spikelets many-flowered); _Schœnus_ (Bog-rush); spikelets few-flowered; _S. nigricans_ has an open sheath. [Illustration: FIG. 285.--_Carex_: _A_ diagram of a male flower; _B_ of a female flower with 3 stigmas; _C_ of a female flower with 2 stigmas; _D_ diagrammatic figure of a female flower; _E_ similar one of the androgynous (false) spikelet of _Elyna_. The ♂ is here represented placed laterally; it is terminal, according to Pax.] [Illustration: FIG. 286.--_A_ Flower of _Scirpus lacustris_. _B_ Seed of _Carex_ in longitudinal section.] =B.= CARICEÆ. UNISEXUAL FLOWERS. In the ♂-flowers there is no trace of a carpel, and in the ♀ no trace of a stamen. Floral-leaves in many rows. In some (_Scleria_, certain _Carex_-species), ♂-and ♀-flowers are borne in the same spikelet, the latter at the base or the reverse; in the majority each spikelet is unisexual. _Carex_ (Fig. 285) has _naked_, most frequently monœcious flowers. The ♂-_spikes_, which are generally placed at the summit of the whole compound inflorescence, are _not compound_; in the axil of each floral-leaf (bract) _a flower is borne, consisting only_ of a short axis with three stamens (Fig. 285 _A_). The ♀-_spikes are compound_; in the axil of each floral-leaf is borne a very small branch (Fig. 285 _D_, _a_) which _bears only one leaf_, namely, a _2-keeled fore-leaf_ (_utriculus_, _utr._ in the figures) which is turned posteriorly (as the fore-leaves of the other Monocotyledons), and being obliquely sheath-like, envelopes the branch (in the same manner as the sheath of the vegetative leaves), and forms a pitcher-like body. In the axil of _this_ leaf the ♀-flower is situated as a branch of the 3rd order, bearing only the 2–3 carpels, which are united into one gynœceum. The style protrudes through the mouth of the utriculus. ~The axis of the 2nd order (_a_ in Fig. 285 _D_) may sometimes elongate as a bristle-like projection (normally in _Uncinia_, in which it ends as a hook, hence the name); this projection is in most cases barren, but it sometimes bears 1–several bracts which support male-flowers; this is normal in _Elyna_ (or _Kobresia_) and _Schœnoxiphium_; the axis (_a_ in 285 _E_) bears at its base a female-flower supported by the utriculus, and above it a male-flower supported by its bract.~