686 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXV. 



(c) A gtont herb of streams in dense forest with 

 long and very broad 3-nerved leaves. 

 Spikelets (spikes) obtuse with many obtuse 

 glumes. Bristles 0. Scales 2 .. .. \^. Hypclytnan. 



'2. Nut prominently exserted (except in S. cari- 

 cina) globose or globosely ovoid, osseous, 

 white and glabrous or puberulous with red- 

 dish hairs, smooth or variously sculptured. 

 Inflorescence panicled . . . . . . lo. Selena. 



//. Nut enclosed in a bottle-shaped utricle with an 

 entire or bifid beak . . . . . . . . . . 16. Care:r, 



1. Cyperus, ^m'"- 



Annual or perennial glalDrous herbs. Root system various. 

 Leaves from sheathes without blades to ver}^ long and prominent. 

 Inflorescence capitate or umbellate, subtended by foliaceous bracts. 

 Spikelets many-flowered. Glumes fertile except the two lowest 

 and the few terminal. Stamens 1-3. Stigmas 2-3 (v. rarely 1). 

 Nut compressed or trigonoxis. Habitat various. (Species nearly 

 400 almost all over the world). 



I have followed Cooke in including under Cyperus the genera Pycreu» 

 and Juncellus of the F. B. I., but have differed from him in maintaining 

 Mariscus as a separate genus. In the case of the two former the characters 

 relied upon by those authors who regard them as genera are the compressed 

 (not trigonous) nut, and the 2 (not 3) style-branches. The same characters 

 could however be equally well relied on to break up the genera Scirpus and 

 Fimbristylis. Moreover in at any rate some of the species of Juncellus the 

 suppression of the third carpel is sometimes incomplete, as is shown by the 

 fact that in the same individual there may be either two or three stigmas, 

 while the nut is obscurely three-sided. In the case of ilfamcws the disarti- 

 culation of the rhachilla seems to be an important morphological character. 

 In the Gramineai the morphology of the rhachilla is regarded as of generic 

 importance and on the same analogy it should be so regarded in the Cypi- 

 racecR also. Nor is Coke correct when he says that this character "cannot be 

 applied in the field, but niay be said to be limited to herbarium specimens" 

 (F. B. P. II, p. 8o3). As a matter of fact when a Mariscus is ripe the 

 spikelets come off in handfuls on the merest touch even when the plant is 

 standing. Articulations are not usually apparent Avhen the parts are im- 

 mature. But this applies to many other morphological characters 

 which are used in systematic botany. Lastly, in most species of Mariscu< 

 the morphology of the spikelet, including shape of glume and shape of nut, 

 is very much removed from the typical Cyperus spikelet, which certainly 

 cannot be said of Pycreus or Juncellus. 



Sub-genus I (ANOSPORUM) Nut corky helotv oron the angles-Tank' floater ^ . 



1. C- CephaloteS, VaM. Stolonifenis — floating in tanks. 

 ]jeafy. Bracts long. Infl. a dense head of pale, manj-^-flowered 

 spikelets. Style v. long, almost entire or slightly 3-notched at tlu- 

 tip. Nut with a thickened, white, corky base, enabling seed dis- 

 persal by water. 



Forming floating islands in association with Pistia Stratiotes in a very 

 few tanks in the above Chat Talukas of Kanara. (Indo-Malayan and K. 

 Asian). 



