:^06 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST SOCIETY, \'„t. XXVI. 



1. H. Wightianum, -fc'oec/,'. 2-o feet, stout. Spikes (as above) 

 up to \ inch. Glumes speckled. Nut ^ inch, ovoid, turgid, 

 yellow to almost black, usually veined longitudinally, minutely 

 speckled, beak usually paler. 



Exclusively confined to the Southern (ihtits by rivulets in dense forest. 

 (Malabar region of India. Nicobars). 



15. Scieria, Ber,j. 



Leafy, leaves usually narrow, often cutting the hand with their 

 scabrous margins. Inflorescence of axillary or panicled spikes. 

 Spikes compact or lax. Spikelets usually unisexual, rarely 

 bisexual. Flowers unisexual, supported by several glumes. Style 

 trifid. Nut osseous, usually prominently exserted, globose or nearly 

 so, usually either white and shining or covered with minute ferru- 

 ginous pubescence, smooth or variously sculptured, usually supported 

 on a gynophore, the apex of which is usuall}^ dilated into a 3-lobed 

 saucer. (Species 150. Tropical and subtropical — not too dry— - 

 countries). 



The available material for the Bombay species of this attractive but 

 difficult genus is so scanty, that I cannot attempt more than a prodromufi 

 at present. The plants of this genus are all hygrophytic and rather 

 autumnal. They are extremely local and scattered, never gregarious, and 

 often not very noticeable. Consequently they have apparently been much 

 neglected. There seems little doubt that there are several Bombay species 

 at present undescribed. I would bring to the attention of Collectors the 

 desirability of preserving the nuts in separate packets on the sheets. The 

 ripe nuts are easily deciduous. They fall away during the process of dry- 

 ing and mounting and evei\ afterwards, and being globose and often very 

 smooth they roll away and are lost. As the discrimination of species 

 depends mainly on the mature nuts their absence renders it often impos- 

 sible to allocate a sheet satisfactorily. 



A. — Spikes reduced to small axillary scarcely exserted clusters, nut minute, 

 not exserted, longitudinally fluted. 



1. S. Caricina, Benth. A delicate little plant, 1-8 in. 

 Leaves about 1 in., linear, acute, in the Bombay example. Nut- 

 bearing glumes with a central acumen and lateral blunt teeth. 

 Niit smaller than a pin's head, white, the longitudinal ridges 

 brown, (in the Bombay example). 



App. v. rare. Yellapur (Herb. Talbot). Indo-Malayan region and China. 



B. — Spikes elongate. Nut far exserted. 

 (1) Disc obsolete. Nut smooth. 



2. S. lithosperma, Siv. Rhizomatous. Stems 1^-3 ft. 

 Very slender. Leaves long, v. narrow. Spikes v. lax with remote 

 flowers. Nut smooth, white, glabrous. Tisc represented by a 

 mere discoloration of the base of the nut. 



App. rare, and only in the heavy rainfall tracts. Talbot's specimen is 

 No. 526 (not 562 as Cooke ex Clarke) (Indo-MaJayan in the wetter regions). 



(2) Disc annular. Nut smx)oth. 



