Pycreus. | CLVI, CYPERACEH (CLARKE). 293 
longitudinal. Durand & Schinz, Etudes Fl. Congo, i. 282; De Wild. & 
Durand, Ill. Fl. Congo, i. 37, t. 19. 
Lower Guinea. Lower Congo: Lutete, by the ‘River Ntombi, Hens, A, 
251! 
South Central. Congo Free State: Equator, 1000 ft., Hens, C, 182 ! 
This species is altogether a Pycreus; but it is the only one which affords any 
clue to the route by which Cyperus has passed into Pycreus. The nut has some- 
times a large asymmetric depression, being then similar to the nut of Carez, called 
*nux prava”’ by Boott. 
8. P. macranthus, (. B. Clarke in Durand &: Schinz, Conspect. Fl. 
Afr. v. 538. Roots fibrous. Stems 1-2 ft. long, somewhat thick, 
triquetrous at the top. Leaves 12 by 4-4 in. broad; sheaths of rather 
lax tissue, transversely lineolate. Umbel 3-1 in. in diam., often con- 
tracted, nearly into 1 head of 6-30 spikelets; bracts 3, lowest 3-8 in. 
long, similar to the leaves. Spikes of 3-8 spikelets, dark-chestnut- 
coloured. Spikelets up to 1 by } in. (sometimes only 3 these dimen- 
sions), each 16-28-nutted. Glumes ovate, obtuse, inflated. Nut very 
small, scarcely } the length of the glume, obovoid, black; outermost 
cells very obscure.—C. B. Clarke in Dyer, Fl. Cap. vii. 156; Rendle in 
Cat. Afr. Pl. Welw. ii. 107. Cyperus macranthus, Boeck. in Linnea, xxx. 
462; Ridley in Trans. Linn. Soc. ser. 2, Bot. ii. 126; K. Schum. in 
Engl. Pf. Ost-Afr. C. 117. C. lanceus, var. macrostachya, Kunth, 
Enum. ii. 8. 
Lower Guinea. Angola: Huilla; marshy places at Empalanca, 5000 ft., 
Welwitsch, 6877 ! 
Mozamb. Dist. German East Africa : between Lake Tanganyika and Lake 
Rukwa, 6000 ft., Nutt! 
Also in South Africa. 
Kunth regarded P. macranthus as the full form of P. nigricans. Boeckeler 
Separated off his single Cape type of P. macranthus (from all the mountain 
Abyssinian P. nigricans) by its thicker stem, and much longer, brighter spikelets. 
The accession of material from intermediate localities has made it difficult to keep 
the two species separate ; Buchanan, 28 (from the Shiré Highlands) at first placed 
in P. macranthus, was subsequently removed to P. nigricans. At «li events, Nutt’s 
plant from Lake Tanganyika is typically P. macranthus. . 
Var. angustifolius, C. B. Clarke ex Rendle in Cat. Afr. Pl. Welw. ii. 107. 
Stolons long, scarcely 1, in. in diam., covered by narrow-lanceolate scales 4 in. long. 
Leaves very narrow. Spikelets 4 by Jin. Nut having the outermost cells longi- 
tudinally oblong.—C. Janceus, var. angustifolius, Ridley in Trans. Linn. Soe. ser. 2, 
Bot. ii, 126. 
Lower Guinea. Angola: Pungo Andongo ; Candumba, 3300 ft., Welwitsch, 
6930! Quita ; Gambos, Newton, 20! 
The nut, though not ripe, shows that these plants must go with P. macranthus 
and P, nigricans rather than with P. umbrosus (Cyperus lanceus). 
9. P. sanguinolentus, Nees in Linnea, ix. 283. Stem 4-18 in. 
long, covered } its length by leaf-sheaths, often flowering the first year, 
or usually decumbent at the base, rooting and often ie creeping. 
ves as long as the stem or scarcely half so long, tot in. broad. 
Umbel simple, usually narrow, often contracted nearly into 1 head; 
