410 ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE BOTANY OF [ Cyperacee. 
194, RESTIACEZ. © 
Besiacen, allied both to Juncea, and Commelinee, resemble Cyperaceé in habit. 
Eriocaulon and Xyris, are also sometimes included in Restiacea, though both. now 
give their names to orders, but the former is still considered by Dr. Lindley as belonging 
to this. The true Restiacee are found.at the Cape of Good Hope, and in New Holland, 
as well as in Van Diemen’s Land ; they are of little use, except that the tough wiry 
stems of some species are manufactured into baskets, and those of others, as Willde- 
nowia teres, for making brooms. Restio tectorum is employed at the Cape of Good Hope, 
both in town and country, for thatching, and sometimes whole huts are built of it. A 
roof thatched with it will last twenty or thirty years, and it is said would last much 
longer, if the S.E. wind did not blow dirt into it, which causes it to rot; it seems well 
worthy of introduction into India, where the thatch is of so perishable a nature. 
195. cy PERACER. 
The comers. so samel Saal Conant. are, in many respects, allied to Grasses, 
which they resemble in general appearance, as they also do, Juncacee and Restiacea. 
The Sedges, as they are called in English, may be easily distinguished from Grasses 
by their stems, being solid, angular, and without any separation at the joints, and by 
the sheaths of their leaves being entire. Professor Nees von Esenbeck, who has paid 
such great attention to this order, and defined the genera both fully and clearly, has 
been good enough to examine the Cyperacee in my collection,’as may he seen in the 
‘Contributions to Indian Botany,” by Dr.Wight, where will be found described the 
greater portion of the Indian Cyperacee, or those contained in the collections of Drs. 
Wallich and Wight, as well as those in that of the Author. But the localities which are 
given to the species in the latter are all incorrect, inasmuch as none were obtained from 
Nepal, but all from the plains of N. Western India, or from that portion of the Hima- 
layan mountains between the Ganges and Sutlej rivers, 
The Cyperacee are found in wet or moist situations in all parts of the world, whether 
tropical or polar, as well at the level of the sea as on the tops of mountains: so in 
India we find them wheresoever there is moisture, both in the hottest parts of the 
Peninsula and the elevated gorges of the Himalayas, and in either situation several of 
the same genera and species are found as occur in other parts of the world, where there 
is similarity of climate. 
As in other families, some of the genera of Indian Comeratte consist, of only single, or 
of very few species, and are found only in the hot parts of India; such are Courtoisia, 
Anosporum, Hemicarpha, Chetocyperus, Echinolytrum, Malacochaete, Hymenochaete, 
Limnochloa, Morisia, Cephaloschenus, Cylindropus, and Hypoporum; of these the last 
is found also in Silhet. Aalacochaete and Limnochioa extend as far north as Saharun- — 
pore, and Morisia is found in Nepal. With these are also found genera which oceur in 
other tropical parts of the world, as Diplacrum, which is found in Ceylon, the Moluccas, 
: and 
