On the other hand, it is rich in Cornpositae, especially Solidago and A ster, Polemoniaceae, Asciepiadaceae, Hydrophyllaceae and Cyperaceae, and it has the endemic Sarracenia, type of a family structurally allied to poppies, of which of the remaining genera Darlingtonia is Californian, and Heliamphora Venezuelan.
Compositae are comparatively rare; so also Gramineae and Cyperaceae are in some places deficient, and Labiatae, Leguminosae and ferns in others.
On the drier and higher mountains of the interior of the chain, the forests become more open, and are spread less uniformly over the hill-sides, a luxuriant herbaceous vegetation appears, and the number of shrubby Leguminosae, such as Desmodium and Indigofera, increases, as well as Ranunculaceae, Rosaceae, Umbelliferae, Labiatae, Gramineae, Cyperaceae and other European genera.
As a rule it is split down its whole length, thus differing from that of Cyperaceae which is almost invariably (Eriospora is an exception) a complete tube; in some grasses, however (species of Poa, Bromus and others), the edges are united.
Bracts of a more general character subtending branches C' of the inflorescence are singularly rare in Gramineae, in marked contrast with Cyperaceae, where they are so conspicuous.