484 CLVI. CYPERACEH (CLARKE). | Schoenus. 
American; the remaining 56 being an Australian group whereof a very few extend 
to South-east Asia or South America. 
1. S. nigricans, Linn. Sp. Pl. ed. ii. 64. Glabrous. Stolons 0. 
Stems 6-20 in. long, stoutly tufted, with no nodes between the basal 
leaves and the 1 head. Leaves about 4 the length of the stem, 4-4 in. 
broad. Head } in. in diam., of 1-15 spikelets ; bracts 2, suberect, lower 
1-4 in. long. linear, but dilated at the base. Spikelet 4 in. long, 
matuiing 1-3 nuts. Glumes ovate, obtuse, minutely scabrid on the 
keel. Stamens 3, anticous. Hypogynous bristles 3-5, less than } the 
length of the nut, yellow-brown, scabrid with upward-pointing barbs. 
Nut in the hollow of the curved joint of the rhachilla, } the length of 
the glume, ellipsoid, trigonous, smooth, pallid, without beak; style 
deciduous.—Sowerby, Engl. Bot. t. 1121; C. B. Clarke in Hook. f. Fi. 
Brit. Ind. vi. 673, in Durand & Schinz, Conspect. Fl. Afr. v. 657, and 
in Dyer, Fl. Cap. vii. 272; Coss. & Durieu, Expl. Scient. Algér. Glum. 
241; J. Ball in Journ. Linn. Soc. xvi. 702. Chetospora nigricans, 
Kunth, Enum. ii. 323; Boeck. in Linnea, xxxviii. 290. 
Wile Land. Abyssinia, Schimper,173! Somaliland, Miss Edith Cole ! 
Extending from Western Europe to North-west India, a'so in North and South 
Africa, the United States, and Surinam, 
19. CLADIUM, P. Browne; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. 
Pl. iii, 1065. 
Spikelets perfecting 1-3 (rarely more) nuts. Glumes imbricated en 
all sides, 3-4 lowest empty, next containing a bisexual flower perfecting 
a nut, uppermost reduced ; rhachilla not elongated above the lowest 
fertile glume. Hypogynous bristles 0 (or rarely small). Style linear ; 
branches 3, long; base thickened. Nut small, trigonous, crowned by 
the enlarged style-base and continuous with it, not distinguishable by 
a transverse constriction or line.-—Mostly robust plants, of varied habit- 
Inflorescence usually a long panicle, sometimes shortly corymbose, never 
umbellate. 
Species, besides the one Cosmopolitan here described, 44 ; mostly insular or pel 
the sea, scattered throughout the warmer parts of the globe. 
1. C. jamaicense, Crantz, Inst. i. 362. Glabrous. Stolons long, 
stout, clothed with striate pale brown ovate-lanceolate scales 1 ir. long. 
Stem 3-8 ft. high, roundish, with nodes and leaves (or bracts) through- 
out its length. Leaves 2-3 ft. by 1-} in., scabrous on the margiDs: 
Panicle oblong, often 1-2 ft. by 3-6 in.; lowest bract similar to - 
topmost leaf; lowest peduncle bearing a compound corymb often = 
100-200 spikelets. Spikelets ;4,—4 in. long, when mature ellipsoid or 
ovoid, obtuse, pale brown, in clusters of 3-10 or solitary, with 2- 
flowers, the lower bisexual producing a nut. Glumes ovate, Hee 
concave, Hypogynous bristles 0. Stamens 2. Style-base larg ’ 
obovoid-subpyramidal, confluent with the top of the ovary. Nut ys 
