208 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST, SOCIETY, V<,1. XXJ'L 



7. S. StOCksiana, Boeck. Stouter and more angular than the 

 last two, 1-2 feet. Sheaths strongly winged. Spikes stouter, up 

 to 1 inch or more. Nut ^ in., not deeply cancellate (seo 

 however (h) ), but shallowly corrugose, always shining, white and 

 o-labrous, not apiculate, but with a sub-umbonate apex. Disc lobes 

 3, ovate, subacute, supporting the nut at the base, thick, with 

 reflexed edges, and with an annular ridge below (the outer 

 lobes of Cooke) which in very mature states is dark with a white 

 edge. 



South of the Presidency fairly common. (Endemic). 



(b) Here may be placed a form from the red laterite plateau near Talod 

 (Ahmedabad District) (Herb. Sedgwick) which differs from the southern 

 type in the nut which is the same size, shape, colour and texture, but is 

 differently sculptured, the cells between the corrugations being deeply 

 perforated. The laterite upland at Talod is separated by long distances 

 from any other laterite, and this may be an isolated local development, or 

 may perhaps be regarded as a new species. 



8. S. elata, Thtv. A very tall plant up to 8 or 10 feet high 

 with very scabrid stems, and long, very scabrid leaves, dangerous to 

 handle. Panicle large, 1 ft. by 6 inches or even more. Nut ^ in., 

 quite globose, shallowly tessellated, and puberulous on the ridges 

 with red hairs (cancellas irregularly distributed, not in regular 

 vertical lines as 5 and 6). Disc 3-lobed, supporting the nut. 



Crest of the ghats in the south of the Presidency, not uncommon. 

 (Throughout moister India, Java, China). 



16. Carex, Lirm. 



Perennials, leafy at the base, or leafy upwards. Inflorescence 

 either of a single spike or of paniculately arranged spikes, which 

 may be unisexual or bisexual, in which case the males may be 

 above and the females below or vice versa. Flowers unisexual, 

 supported by a glume. Ovarv and nut enclosed in a bottle-shaped 

 utricle, with a short or long (usually bihd) beak. (Species 500 

 and more. Cosmopolitan, but mainly of cold or temperate climates. 

 The Indian species are mainly mountain plants). 



1. C. Wlercarensis, Hoehst. 



A tall leafy sedge. Panicle large, compound. Spikes |-| in. 

 with about G-10 laxly-arranged female flowers at the base and 

 males at the top. Female glumes ferruginous brown, more or less 

 aristate. Utricles slightly curved or quite straight, greenish, 

 scaberulous, about 15-ribbed, Avith a beak about as long as the 

 utricle. 



iVo^e.— Cooke regards the Bombay plants as belonging to the Var Major, 

 Steud. 



Quite commop in forest on the ghats in the South of the Pesidency, and 

 occasional as far North as Thana (S. W. India). 



