SciKpUS, TRIAKDRIA MONOGYSU." 237 



.^0. Sc. ynaxinms. R. 



Culms straight, from six to fifteen feet high, triangular. Vmhel 

 decompound ; spikekta roundish. Seed obcordate, three-sided, with- 

 out bristles. 



Sc. grussus. Retz. Obs. v. 15. and probably Linn. Suppl. p. 104. 



Tcling. Booda-tunga. 



Is found only in pretty deep, standing, sweet water. 



Root fibrous, and stoloniferous. — CwZms erect, most rigid, naked, 

 except at the base, from six to fifteen feet high, and from one to two 

 inches in diameter, three-sided ; angles very sharp ; sides somewhat 

 concave. — Leaves mostly radical, almost as long as the culm, much 

 keeled, (a transverse section appears like the letter V,) smooth, in- 

 side only a little striated.— f/wig/ super-decompound, generally 

 about a foot long. — Involucre, from three to four-leaved, the largest 

 from three to four feet long, the smallest from three to four inches, 

 smooth. — Involucel chaffy. — Spikes minute, ovate, few-flowered — ■ 

 Scales broad, and short. — Stamens three — Stigma three-cleft. — 

 Seed three-sided, without bristles, which easily distinguishes it from 

 the last Sc. gj'ossus. 



Obs. I have not in any of the foregoing genera of Ci/pcroxdetc 

 taken notice of the sheaths which embrace the base of the peduncles 

 and pedicels of the umbels, and their sub-divisions ; because they 

 are common to all, and so much alike, that I do not think they 

 can convey any information. Nor have I attended to the form of 

 those peduncles and pedicels ; because I have not found it uniform. 

 The culm, inflorescence, involucre, and seed, are I think, the best 

 marks to discriminate the species by, particularly the culm and 

 seed. The number of stamens and divisions of stigma, sometimes 

 vary even in the same plant, much more in different plants of the 

 same species. 



Nearly the whole of the plants belonging to the six foregoing- 

 Genera (called Calamaria by Linneus, and Ci/peroidecc by Jussieu) 

 are natives of low, barren, moist places, and borders of rice fields 

 on the coast of Coromandel. They appear, blossom, and ripen 



