204 TRIANDRIA MONOGYNIA. CyperilS. 



Root fibrous. Culms erect, from two to five feet high, 

 very rigid, obsoletely three sided, smooth, four-fifths naked. 

 Leaves sheathing, length of the culm, rigid, striated, margins 

 hispid. Umbel terminal, decompound, from six to eight 

 inches each way. Umbellets with peduncles of various 

 lengths, composed of peduncled, globular heads, and these 

 again of numerous small, sessile, linear, lanceolate, rigid, 

 spinulous-pointed, from three to four-flowered spikelets. In- 

 volucre from four to six-leaved, unequal, the largest being- 

 from two to three feet long, and the shortest about the same 

 number of inches, margins hispid, like those of the leaves. 

 Involucel from three to six-leaved, length of the umbellets. 

 Scales linear. 



Obs. I have not seen the pistil nor seed. It is a remark- 

 ably coarse species ; no animal eats it. 



35. C. elatus. Linn, sp.pl. ed. Willd. 1. 287. Vahl. enum. 

 2. 363. 



Culms from six to twenty feet long, sharp-angled. Umbel 

 scarcely decompound. Spikes all sub-sessile, linear, erect. 

 Spikelets most numerous, alternate, from six to eighteen- 

 flowered, anthers ending in a thread. Seeds oblong, three- 

 sided. 



Beng. Gol-mielMiiga. 



Teling, Rak/sha. •> 



This is by far the largest species on the coast of Coroman- 

 del. It grows in sweet standing water. 



Root fibrous. Culms erect, from six to twenty feet high, 

 and thick in proportion, naked, except near the base, three- 

 sided, angles sharp, rigid and scabrous, so as to cut the hand 

 readily, other parts pretty smooth. Leaves sheathing, in 

 small plants, as long as the culm, about an inch in diameter 

 at the broadest part, triangularly concave, with the keel and 

 margins sharply serrate. Umbel terminal, decompound, 

 erect, small for the size of the plant, being only about a foot 

 high in middle-sized plants. Umbellets one, or two, sub- 



