26 ME. C B. CLABKE ON INDIAN SPECIES OF CTPEBUS. 



question whether the species has any perigynium or not. The 

 final view of Boeckeler is, " Perigynium e squamis constat 

 tribus, quarum una quam reliquae multo minor ; squamse crassi- 

 usculaa straminea3, basi inter se et pedicello, parte superiore, 

 angulis fructus connatae ibique evanescentes, v. caryopsin usque 

 ad apicem marginantes et cum styli basi in rostrum complanatum 

 vel teretiusculum connatae." 



Turning at once to my pictures, fig. 1 represents the pistil 

 just before fertilization ; there is no trace of perigynium at this 

 time. The ovary is very thin-walled, and its cavity with the 

 ovule is visible through the walls, and is shown in my picture. 

 The narrow-conic base of the style at this time is extremely 

 firm and opaque (quite unlike all other species of Cyperus). 



Fig. 2 represents the same ovary shortly after fertilization; 

 even before the ovary has sensibly swollen the axis has under- 

 gone a rapid prolongation and produced the pedicel. This 

 pedicel appears to spring directly out of the torus ; nor do I see 

 that it differs from the base of a carpel in Anonaceae for instance. 



Fig. 3 represents the ripe nut from within (the side pressed 

 against the rhachilla). Eigs. 4 and 5 represent two horizontal 

 sections taken one near the base, one near the top of the pedicel ; 

 and fig. 6 is the same nut seen from without, the stamens having 

 been removed. In these drawings the closer cells represent the 

 dark-brown body of the nut ; the larger paler cells the straw- 

 coloured corky cells of the " squamae," which are really hardly 

 larger than those of the nut, but are exaggerated a little in the 

 drawing to make a contrast which is really due to colour. 



On the inner face of the nut (fig. 3) the tissue of the nut is 

 perfectly continuous with that of the straw-coloured squamae ; 

 there is a perfectly gradual transition of colour from one to the 

 other, both at the base and on the pale-angles. On the back of 

 the nut, however (fig. 6), as it becomes ripe, a chink appears 

 between the base of the nut and the corky scales, which widens 

 into a chasm as the nut gets perfectly ripe. At the same time a 

 small ellipsoidal portion of the corky pedicel splits out by two 

 deep narrow chinks (which, however, never, I believe, proceed 

 further than as shown in cross-section fig. 5) ; and thus is pro- 

 duced the " third smaller scale " of Boeckeler, firmly connected to 

 the last at its apex with the smaller angle of the nut. 



These chinks, imperfect dehiscences, undoubtedly occur in the 

 nut with undeviating regularity. The theory of Boeckeler is that 



