2 Mtt. C. B. CLABKE ON INDIAN SPECIES OF CYPEBUS. 



superseded) ; nor have I been able to give much account of geo- 

 graphy beyond the limits of India, nor to compare (and illustrate 

 subdivisions with) many African or American species, except a few 

 very well-known ones. The present paper, therefore, in these 

 respects, presents a gradual tailing off. 



The Society may fairly ask me, why, then, publish so unequal a 

 paper ? And my reply is, because it contains a good deal of work, 

 and because many years must elapse before I can hope to make it 

 more complete. Of course I may never be able to add any thing 

 to it. All papers, at least of a systematic kind, prepared in Asia, 

 Africa, or America, must be, as literary work, very poor perform- 

 ances in the eyes of botanists in the herbaria of London, Paris, 

 and Geneva; but it has not been, I believe, hitherto the system 

 of the Linnean Society to reject, on the score of incompleteness, 

 any paper that contains additions to the sum of scientific know- 

 ledge. And the most highly -finished systematic papers of Euro- 

 pean botanists are often, though in form perfect, extremely in- 

 complete really : completion and finality are alike in such work 

 unattainable. 



In this paper Sect. I. is the result of taking each part of a 

 Cyperus, culm, inflorescence, &c, and comparing it in all the Indian 

 species ; Sect. II. contains a discussion of some difficult species 

 and disputed genera ; Sect. III. is a systematic arrangement, with 

 descriptions of the Indian species, with short citations of some 

 non-Indian species that more particularly illustrate the subdivi- 

 sions and groups. 



SECTION I. 



(1) The Ehizome. 



There are two classes of Cyperus, viz. (1) strictly annual, with 

 fibrous roots ; (2) biennial or perennial, or with a horizontal rhi- 

 zome. In tliis second case the rhizome may be (in the same 

 species) very short, with very short nodes and caespitose culms, 

 or the stolons may be elongate, developing into creeping rhizomes 

 with long joints and distant solitary culms. 



Of the second class, a lew species appear to flower sometimes 

 in the first season, and examples of such in the herbarium cannot 

 be distinguished from annuals. The regular annual species, 

 once-flowering, such as Cyperus pumilus, I have never known 



