THE CYPEEACi:^: OF THE BOMBAY PRESIDENCY. 205 



13. Rhyncospora, Vakl. 



Habit various but often with stem leafy. Intioresceuce various. 

 Spikelets with 3 or 4 shorter lower empty glumes, 1 or 2 middle 

 longer, fertile, and 1 upper male (in the Bombay species), golden 

 brown. Stigmas 2. Nut biconvex, crowned by the much enlarged 

 conical style base. (Species 150, in the wariner or temperate re- 

 gions of the world, especially America. English " Beakniit"). 



1. R. Wightiana, Steud. 6-1(5 inches. Leaves all basal. 

 Spikelets numerous in a single crowded bracteate head. Bracts 

 rigid, dilated and ciliate at the base. Bristles 6, golden, scabrid 

 with erect teeth, twice or more than twice as long as the nut. Nut 

 laterally flattened ^ in. or slightly less, black but rendered greyish 

 by the numei'ous scabrid white papilla?, which point upwards. 



Exclusively confined to the heavy rainfall region both above and below 

 ghats from Igatpuri and Bassein to Kanara, and very connnon on open 

 grassy land in that region in the monsoon. (India, W. Peninsula, Cochin 

 China). 



Note. — I exclude R. Wallichiana, Kuuth., which Cooke gives on the 

 authority of Woodrow as occurring at Kalyan. I have examined a con- 

 siderable material in the four Herbaria and iind all the specimens abso- 

 lutely constant as above described. R. Wallichiana has a much shorter, 

 turgidly biconvex, smooth nut, dorsally compressed (as Juncellus) and short 

 or obsolete bristles. Owing to pressure in drying, the nuts in R. Wiyhtianu 

 often become displaced and give a mistaken impression of being dorsally 

 compressed. R. Wallichiana is an eastern species, of which apparently 

 R. Wightiana is the western form. 



2. R. aurea, VcM. 2-3 ft. Leafy throughout with long leaves 

 Spikelets numerous, clustered or spikately arranged on the branches 

 of large, multiple, bracteate cor3'-mbs. Bristles 6 or fewer, shorter 

 than the nut. Nut large up to ^ in., more than half of which is 

 occupied by the stout channelled beak. 



Apparently only in streams and marshes on the crest of the Southern 

 Ghats, but possibly more widely distributed. (India E. and S. "NVana 

 regious of the world). 



14. Hypolytrum, Uich. 



Leafy upwards. Leaves flat 3-nerved. Inflorescence paniculate 

 with rigid divaricate branches. Spikes many-flowered, resem- 

 bling the spikelet of other GYPEBAGEOUS genera. Spikelets 

 reduced to one obtuse glume within which is a reduced rhachilla 

 bearing two basal stamens supported by scales and one terminal 

 pistil. 



Stigmas two. Nut turgid. (Species about 30-40. Tropical 

 regions). 



Note. — The limitation of the species appears to be difhcult and our 

 species, as all the Indian species, is regarded by Clarke merely as a form 

 of H. lalifolium, Rich. 



