88 ME. 0. B. CLARKE ON INDIAN SPECIES OE CYPEBUS. 



Mergui ( Griffith n. 43, h. Kew) ; Chota Nagpore, Parasnath, 

 alt. 500 metr. (C. B. Clarke n. 24896) ; Madras Peninsula 

 {Wight n. 1821, h. Kew; Koenig, h. Mus. Brit. ; Roxburgh, 

 h. Mies. Brit. ; Wight in Wallich n. 3323, h. Calcutta) ; 

 Zeylania (Thtvaites, C. P. n. 803, hh. Kew, Calcutta). 

 Australia : Queensland (Leichardt, h. Kew). 

 This is a critical, comparatively rare species, from which the 

 wide-spread C. cuspidatus is with difficulty distinguishable. 



C. castaneus was originally founded on its chestnut colour, and 

 in the typical form the glumes are chestnut-red to chestnut-black, 

 a colour hardly found in all C. cuspidatus. Boeckeler, however, 

 says the glumes are " sanguineo-spadiceao v. raro rufo-ferruginea3 

 nitidaD:" this is because Boeckeler worked with small material, 

 of which some of the best would be Thwaites n. 803 ; but some 

 of Thwaites's no. 803 (which, with Thwaites and Boeckeler, I 

 call true C. castaneus) is very pale, with a little obscure dull 

 red about it, and not at all shining. The fact is that (as 

 in most cases) colour fails us as a diagnostic mark, and is given 

 up by Boeckeler, who keeps up the two species solely on the 

 difference in the length and shape of the nut. This difference, 

 though well marked in many specimens, becomes very obscure in 

 others. An auxiliary character is that in C. cuspidatus the glume 

 is very conspicuously 3-nerved, much less conspicuously in C. cas- 

 taneus ; but this character is not to be depended on. The mucro 

 of the glume is often more curved in C. cuspidatus, but not 

 always. If the two species are to be distinguished, it must be 

 solely by the nut as Boeckeler has got it. 



Wall. List n. 3376 B, both at Calcutta and in h. propr., is 

 most typical C. cuspidatus, var. angustifolia; Boeckeler refers this 

 number to C. castaneus, but the "Wallichian herbarium is so mixed 

 that this proves nothing. 



50. C. cuspidatus (H. B. K. Nov. Gen. et Sp. i. p. 104) ; 

 umbella specie simplice rarius capitata, radiis longiusculis, spi- 

 culis digitatis ; glum is emarginatis, plane trinerviis, mucrone sub 

 apice longe excurrente ; nuce anguste obovoidea, obtusa, fusco- 

 atra, quam £ pars glumse (mucrone excluso) longiore. — Kunth, 

 Enum. ii. p. 22 ; Nees in Mart. Brasil., Gyp. p. 24 ; Boeck. in 

 Linncea, xxxv. p. 496 ; Benth. Fl. Austral, vii. p. 267. 



C exiguus, Nees ! in Mart. Brasil., Cyp. p. 22. 

 C. Salzmanni, Steud. ! Cyp. p. 1 . 



