Sc^rpuS. TRTANDRIA. M'^NOGYNIA. 213 



43. C. TIaspan. Linn. Sp. PL ed. IVUld. 1. 287. 



Culms iiom lour to sixteen inches lugh. Uinhel super-decom- 

 pound, uivolucre Uvo-leavt'd. iSeeds globular, white. 



Grauitu cvperoides madasari^atauuiu, &.c. Pluck, aim. 192. y.- 2. 



Teling. Poo-cus'.ialic. 



An elegant small species, a native of cultiva'.ed moist places. 



Root ^hrous.— Culms erect, from four to twelve inches high, 

 three-fourths naked, obsoletely three-sided, smooth.— L^wtes sheath- 

 ing, often as long as the culm, very slender.— t/mte;/ super-de- 

 compound, in small plants as Icyig as the culm. Umbelkts one or 

 two sessile, and frcnn four to six peduncled. Partial umbellets of 

 the first and second degrees pedicelled.— //iro/wcre generally two- 

 leaved, unequal, the longest rather longer than the culm; involucel 

 a few chaffy scales only Stamens two or three.— .Seed sub-globu- 

 lar, pure white, smooth. 



SCIRPUS. 

 Glumes. chaffy, imbricated on all sides. Carol none. Seed one. 



Sect. isL Without leaves. 



1. S. fuberosui. Z?. 



Boat tuberous. Citlms culumnar, jointed, leafless. Spikes termi- 

 nal, c\lindric, nuked. Scales ohUnv^. Base of ihe st^le cordate. Seed 

 obcordate, beset with g\chidate bristles. 



Pi-tsi, Maa-tai, Pu-tsai, cr Pe-tsi, or water chesnut of the Chinese.' 



It ]s menii oned by Abbe Ci osier ui der the first name, and under 

 the other a; pellatioiis was t ansmitttd from CantciU, by Mr. Dun- 

 can, at the desire of the Governor Cieneral, for the Company's 

 Botanic Garden, where it blossoms about the close of the lams, in 

 September. 



Ruol fibrous, with stolonilerous shoots and rotmd tui nip-shaped 

 tubers. — Culms erect, naked, slightly twisted to ll;e right, inwaidly 

 intercepted by slender membranes, distant a line, or a line and a 

 halt from each other, every -eight or tenth of these partitions, is of a 



