Pipe-Wort (Eriocaulon Septangulare, With. =E. Articulatum, Morong.)

The habitat of this plant is shallow lakes. The plant is tufted in habit. The rootstock is creeping, with cellular, white roots of jointed fibres. The leaves are awl-like, flattened at the margin, green, translucent, septate, smooth. The flowers are unisexual, borne on a scape, twisted, with 6-8 furrows, longer than the leaves. The flowers are 4-cleft, hairy at the end, as well as the scales, in a compact scaly head. The fertile flowers are 4-partite. The parts are in twos, the outer segments being dark, bearded at the tip, the inner fringed with hairs with a black spot at the tip. The lateral flowers have the divisions keeled, flattened, blunt, fringed. Each flower has a scale, black and blunt, shorter and broader. The anthers are dark. The ovary is stalked. The capsule is 2-celled. The plant is 6 in. to 2 ft. high, flowering in July and August, and is a herbaceous perennial.