232 TRIANDRIA MONOGYNIA, Scirpus, 
naked, except at the base, from six to fifteen feet high, and 
from one to two inches in diameter, three-sided ; angles very 
sharp ;.sides somewhat concave. Leaves mostly radical, al- 
most as long as the culm, much keeled, (a transverse section 
appears like the letter V,) smooth, inside only a little striat- 
ed, Umbel superdecompound, generally about a foot long. 
Involucre trom three to four-leaved, the largest from three — 
to four feet long, the smallest from tliree to four inches, — 
smooth, Jnvolucel chaffy. Spikes minute, ovate, few-flower- 
ed, Scales broad; and short. Stamens three. Stigma 
three-cleft. Seed three-sided, without bristles, which easily 
distinguishes it from the last Sc. grossus, 
Obs. 1 have not’ in any of the foregoing genera of Cype- 
roidee@ taken notice of the sheaths which embrace the base of — g 
the peduncles and pedicels of the umbels, and their sub-divi- 
sions; because they are common to all, and so much alike, 
that I do not think they can convey any information, | Nor, 
have I attended to the form of those peduncles and pedicels; 
because I have not found it uniform, The culm, inflorescence, 
involucre, and seed, are:I think, the best marks to discrimi- 
nate the species by, particularly the culm and seed, The 
number of stamens and divisions of stigma, sometimes vary 
even in the same plantimanch more in different plants of the 
_ Same species, — fer bs 
Nearly the whole of the plate cen to the six forego- 
ing genera (called Calamarie by Linnzeus, and Digpctoidoa 
by: Jussieu) are natives of low, barren, moist places, and bor- 
ders of rice fields on the coast of Coromandel. They appear, 
blossom, and ripen their seed during the rains, and the be- _ 
ginning of the cool season, a are in general rejected by) 
cattle, t i te. ae 
