1. H. renifórmis, Ruiz & Pav. Leaves round-kidney-shaped to cordate and acute; spathe 3–5-flowered; flowers white or pale blue.—Conn. to N. J., west to Ill. and E. Kan., and southward. (S. Am.)
2. H. limòsa, Vahl. Leaves oblong or lance-oblong, obtuse at both ends; spathe 1-flowered; flowers larger, blue.—Va. to Mo. and La. (S. Am.)
[*][*] Stamens alike, with sagittate anthers; capsule 1-celled, with 3 parietal placentæ; leaves linear, translucent, sessile; submerged grass-like herbs, with only the flowers reaching the surface.
3. H. gramínea, Vahl. The slender branching stems clothed with leaves and bearing a terminal 1-flowered spathe (becoming lateral); flowers small, pale yellow, with a very long thread-like tube. (Schollera graminifolia, Willd.)—N. Eng. to N. C., west to Minn. and E. Kan.
Order 118. XYRIDÀCEÆ. (Yellow-eyed-grass Family.)
Rush-like herbs, with equitant leaves sheathing the base of a naked scape, which is terminated by a head of perfect 3-androus flowers, with extrorse anthers, glumaceous calyx, and a regular colored corolla; the 3-valved mostly 1-celled capsule containing several or many orthotropous seeds with a minute embryo at the apex of fleshy albumen.
1. XỲRIS, Gronov. Yellow-eyed Grass.
Flowers single in the axils of coriaceous scale-like bracts, which are densely imbricated in a head. Sepals 3; the 2 lateral glume-like, boat-shaped or keeled and persistent; the anterior one larger and membranaceous, enwrapping the corolla in the bud and deciduous with it. Petals 3, with claws, which cohere more or less. Fertile stamens 3, with linear anthers, inserted on the claws of the petals, alternating with 3 sterile filaments, which are cleft and in our species plumose or bearded at the apex. Style 3-cleft. Capsule oblong, free, 1-celled, with 3 parietal more or less projecting placentæ, 3-valved, many-seeded.—Flowers yellow, produced all summer. Ours apparently all perennials. (Ξυρίς, a name of some plant with 2-edged leaves, from ξυρόν, a razor.)
1. X. flexuòsa, Muhl. Scape slender (10–16´ high), barely flattened at the summit, often from a bulbous base, very smooth, much longer than the narrowly linear leaves, both commonly twisted with age; head roundish-ovoid (3–4´´ long); lateral sepals oblong lanceolate, finely ciliate-scarious on the narrow wingless keel, usually with a minute bearded tuft at the apex, shorter than the bract.—Sandy or peaty bogs, Mass. to Fla., west to Minn. and Mo.
Var. pusìlla, Gray. Small and very slender, seldom twisted, 2–9´ high, the base not bulbous; head 2–3´´ long.—White Mts. to Penn., west to L. Superior.