412 DK. A. B. EENDLE— SYSTEMATIC 



fructu oblique lineari-oMongo, sub apice augustato, a pericarpio teuui semini conform 

 arete circumdato; testa dura brunnea cum seriebus scalar if ormibus foveolarum notata 

 The main stem branches immediately above the base. The habit varies according to 

 the length of the internodes. These may be short and the whole plant small, densely 

 leaved and bushy with a rounded outline from the apparently regularly dichotomous 

 branching. Examples of this habit are common, the plants ranging f I'om 4 to 6 cm. 

 high. A laxer habit results from elongation of the lower internodes, and the bushy 

 growth is confined to the ends of the longer shoots. In some cases growtli is extremely 

 lax, and the characteristic dichotomous habit quite disappears. 



The plants seen range from 4 to 25 cm. in height or length of shoots. The lovvei- 

 internodes vary in length from scarcely 1 to 6 or 8 cm., with a maximum breadth of 

 1 mm. ; their length decreases gradually upward, and at the tips of the shoots the leaves 

 are closely crowded. Leaves linear-tapering, with a broad sheath, and in the more tyj)ical 

 forms stiff, bent upward along the midrib and falcately recurved, while the margin bears 

 a few patent teeth with a broad base ending in an upcurved or ascending spine. Where 

 the habit of the plant is laxer the leaves are less rigid, longer, tapei'ini^: very gradually, 

 and not recurved. Sheaths broad, 2 to 3 mm. long, generally truncately rounded, often 

 asymmetrical, with a few (generally 5 to 7) rather prominent teeth on each shoulder; 

 teeth smaller from above downward, sometimes continued in a few smaller ones a short 

 \vay down the sides ; the shoulders are sometimes more or less raised into an auricle on 

 which the prominent teeth are borne ; the teeth may be more numerous than indicated 

 above, as many as 18 have been counted on one shoulder, but in such cases there is con- 

 siderable difference in size between the two sides of the sheath. Blade generally between 

 1 and 2 cm., but may reach 25 cm., -3 to -5 mm. broad ; generally with 6 to 10 mar- 

 ginal teeth, or 12 to 15 in the longer leaves of the laxer plants. The leaf- width and the 

 proportion of the length of the teeth to it vary considerably ; in the same leaf the 

 proportion may change from below upward, the length of the teeth, for instance, being 

 about J of the leaf -width in the lower part and f in the upper, or nearly equal to it. 

 Their length is generally between J and J the leaf -width, but may even exceed the latter. 

 There are generally no teeth on the back, but occasionally the thickened midrib bears a 

 few small teeth. The apex ends in one or a pair of spiny teeth. Intravaginal scales 

 from '75 to scarcely 1 mm. long. 



Flowers protected by the leaf-sheath ; male and female often found in successive leaf- 

 axils. Male about 1*5 mm. long before elongation of stalk preceding anther-dehiscence. 

 Spathe ellipsoidal, elongated below, and ending above the perianth in a shortly 

 cylindrical neck, irrregularly spiny-toothed at and beneath the mouth; perianth 

 closely investing the shortly-stalked, ellipsoidal anther, above which it terminates in a 

 pair of thick closed lips. Anther-wall delicate, enclosing the rounded or subelliptical 

 pollen-grains When dehiscence is about to occur, the axis elongates and pushes the 

 flower through the neck of the spathe, which becomes longitudinally split ; the lips of the 

 perianth separate and the pollen from the ruptured anther escapes through the aperture ; 

 length of dehiscing flower 2 mm. Female flowers about 2 5 mm. long, of which the 

 sessile ovary occupies about a third ; style long, almost cylindrical or slightly tapering, 



