Maschalocephalus.| QXLIV. RAPATEACEE (BROWN). 89 
at the apex into a short conical or mitre-like appendage; albumen 
copious, mealy.; embryo lenticular, seated on the albumen near the 
hilum.—Perennial marsh herbs of robust habit, with short thick 
rhizomes. Leaves all radical, usually more or less distichous ; sheaths 
well developed, conduplicate ; blades elongate, broadly linear-lanceolate 
or oblong, sessile on the sheath or distinctly petiolate, with numerous 
parallel veins. Flowers in dense heads involucrate by two large bracts, 
or in a unilateral spike enclosed in a spathe, usually on long peduncles, 
or (in the African species) very shortly pedunculate or subsessile in 
the axils of the leaves; each flower surrounded by numerous bracts, 
which sometimes form an involucre resembling that of the Composite. 
A small order of 7 genera and about 24 species, all natives of Tropical America, 
except the following. 
1. MASCHALOCEPHALUS, Gilg & K. Schum. in Engl, 
Jahrb, xxviii. 148. 
Flowers hermaphrodite, regular. Perianth with an elongated tube 
and 6 subequal lobes. Stamens 6, inserted on the tube of the perianth ; 
anthers linear, rounded at the base, tapering towards the apex, opening 
by introrse pores at the apex, 4-celled, the 2 inner cells about } shorter 
than the outer. Ovary 3-celled; style elongated; ovules solitary in 
each cell, affixed near the base of the axile placenta, erect. Capsule 
triangular, shortly apiculate, faintly striate. Seed ellipsoid, acute at 
both ends, with an elongated gibbosity above the hilum; testa smooth, 
thinly punctulate, milk-white, provided with a radiating fibrous yellow 
appendage or callus at the apex; albumen copious ; embryo very small. 
—Marsh herbs of tufted habit. Leaves alternate, hard, somewhat 
rigid, densely crowded, linear-lanceolate, sheathing at the base. Flowers 
in heads in the axils of the leaves. 
An endemic genus of 1 species, which I have not seen. 
1. M. Dinklagei, Gilg d: K. Schum. in Engl. Jahrb. xxviii. 148. 
A tufted herb. Leaf-sheaths unequally plicate, 43-5} in. long, 7 lin. 
broad at the base, narrowing to about 2 lin. broad where they pass 
into the blades, which are about 16 in. long, 14 lin. broad, linear- 
lanceolate, tapering towards both ends, very acute, many-nerved. In- 
florescence about 3 in. long. ‘Capitulum sessile in the axils of the 
leaves, bracteate at the base, with a few unequal complicate and carinate 
subulate bracts, pedunculate above the bracts; peduncle thick, trian- 
gular, short, almost concealed by the two larger involucrating bracts, 
many-flowered.” Flowers surrounded by many bracteoles. Perianth- 
tube slender, about 14 in. long, 3 lin. diam., cylindric ; lobes 6, sub- 
equal, 54 lin. long, 24 lin. broad, very thin and membranous, whitish- 
yellow. 
Upper Guinea. Liberia; in a swamp at Fish Town, Grand Bassa, about 10 ft, 
above sea-level, Dinklage, 2088. 
