Order 4. =Rapateaceæ.= Marsh-plants with radical leaves, usually in two rows, and several spikelets on the summit of the main axis, clustered into a capitulum or unilateral spike. Each spikelet has numerous imbricate floral-leaves and one flower. 24 species. South America. Order 5. =Eriocaulaceæ.= The “Compositæ among Monocotyledons,” a tropical order. The flowers are borne in a _capitulum_ surrounded by an _involucre_, very similar to that of the Compositæ. The flowers are very small, unisexual, ♂ and ♀ often mixed indiscriminately in the same capitulum; they have the usual pentacyclic structure; the leaves of the inner perianth are often connate and more membranous than the outer; in some the outer series of stamens are suppressed; in each of the 3 loculi is one pendulous ovule. Capsule. The leaves are generally radical and grass-like.--335 species; _Eriocaulon_, _Paepalanthus_, etc., _E. septangulare_ on the west coast of Scotland, and Ireland, and in North America. Order 6. =Restiaceæ.= A small, especially S. African and S. Australian, xerophilous order (about 235 species), which is quite similar in habit to the Juncaceæ and Cyperaceæ. The leaves are often reduced to sheaths. The flowers are diœcious, the perianth as in _Juncus_, but the outer series of stamens suppressed. The ovary and fruit as in Eriocaulaceæ; the ovary, however, may be unilocular, and the fruit a nut. _Restio_, etc. Order 7. =Centrolepidaceæ.= These are the most reduced plants in the family; small grass- or rush-like herbs. The flowers are very small, naked. Stamens 1–2, carpels 1–∞. 32 species. Australia.--_Centrolepis_ (flowers generally ☿ with 1 stamen and 2–∞ carpels). Family 5. =Liliifloræ.= The flower is constructed on the general monocotyledonous type, with 5 alternating, 3-merous whorls (Fig. 278), but exceptions are found as in the Iridaceæ (Fig. 279) by the suppression of the _inner_ whorl of stamens; in a few the position in relation to the bract differs from that represented in Fig. 278, and in some instead of the trimerous, di- or tetramerous flowers are found (_e.g. Majanthemum_, _Paris_). Flowers generally _regular, hermaphrodite_, with simple, _petaloid_, coloured perianth (except, for example, Bromeliaceæ); ovary trilocular, generally with 2 ovules or 2 rows of ovules in the inner angle of each loculus (Fig. 304 _C_, _D_). _Endosperm_ always present.--A very natural family, of which some divisions in part overlap each other. The habit varies; the leaves are however long, entire, with parallel venation, except in Dioscoreaceæ (Fig. 313). In the first orders of this family the flowers are hypogynous, and in the first of all the styles are free, and the capsule dehisces septicidally; in the following the flowers are epigynous and in some reduced in number or unisexual; capsule with loculicidal dehiscence, or a berry.