510 CLVI, CYPERACEH (CLARKE). | Scleria. 
longer than the stem, flat, 4 in. broad, on the edge very scabrous 
retrorsely; ligule membranous, elongate, obtuse, coloured, glabrous. 
Panicles few (about 3), far apart, subtriangular, loose, terminal with 
several branches, 14 in. high ; branches subsessile, the lower 3 with leaf- 
like bracts; lateral panicles small, }-3 in. high, peduncled, with 3 
branches, supported by 3 very long (8-9 in.) bracts ; peduncles 1-} in. 
long, compressed; rhachis hairy; bracteoles setaceous, long. Male 
spikelets 2—3 together, several flowered ; female spikelets paired. Glumes 
variegated with red. Nut hard, stalked, scarcely shorter than the 
glumes, ovoid, attenuate at the tip, trigonous, minutely hairy, pale 
violet (or sometimes pallid), shining; margin of disc separated from 
the nut, very short, rigid, papery, shallowly 3-lobed, plicate wrinkled, 
pallid ; disc persistent on the rhachilla, patelliform, orbicular, pallid 
within.—Boeck. in Verhandl. Bot. Ver. Brandenb. xxxi. 71. 
Lower Guinea. (Gaboon: Sibange Farm, Buettner, 8 (ex Boeckeler). 
Somewhat allied to S. Flagellum, Benth, 
25. DIPLACRUM, R. Br. Prod. 240. 
Spikelets all 1-sexual; female without rudiment of upper flowers, 
so that the 1 flower appears terminal ; otherwise as Scleria.—Scleria, 
Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Pl. iii. 1070, partly. 
Species 6, in Tropical and Subtropical regions, 3 in the Old World, 2 in the 
New, besides 1 common to both regions. 
There is no real line between this genus and Scleria ; in many small species of 
Scleria the rudiment of the male flower, of 1 or 2 small glumes, is reduced to 
nute scales or wanting; and the female flower then appears terminal. 
Stems 2-5 in. long, slender “ rs : . 1. D. africanum. 
Stem 20 in, long, robust . : : s = . 2. D. longifolium. 
1. D. africanum, ©. B. Clarke in Durand & Schinz, Conspect. 
Fl. A ifr. v. 668. A weak, nearly glabrous annual. Stems tufted, 
2—5 in. long, slender, leafy their whole length. Leaves 1-1} by 3-3 in., 
tip rather suddenly acuminated. Inflorescence of minute axillary heads 
of spikelets, often continued nearly to the base of the stem ; lower heads 
on peduncles rarely exserted so much as}in. Spikelets ,—;'5 in. long, 
ovate-lanceolate, green or yellowish. Glume to female flower ovate- 
lanceolate, entire at the tip, 3-nerved, concave at the base. Nut 
minute, subglobose, white, with 10-14 longitudinal strie from summit 
to base which do not anastomose.—K. Schum. in Engl. Pf. Ost-Afr. 
C. 129. D. pygmeum, Boeck. in Linnea, xxxviii. 434 (excl. the 
Australian examples), and in Flora, 1879, 569; Oliver in Trans. Linn. 
Soc. xxix. 170, not of Nees. D. caricinum, T. Thoms. in Speke, Nile, 
Append. 654, not of R. Br. 
Upper Guinea. Senegambia, Heudelot, 675! Sierra Leone, Scott-Elliot, 
4341! Niger Territory: Nupe, Barter, 1041! 
Nile Band. British East Africa: Jur; Jur Ghattas, Schweinfurth, 2573 | 
Madi, Speke §& Grant ! 
