890 CXLTI. CTPERACEJE. 



6. Eleocharis palustris, R. Br. Prod. (1810) p. 224 {in note). 

 A variable plant ; rhizome creeping, black or chestnut-brown, rooting 

 from the nodes ; stems 4-24 by -jV^s ^^- ' "Ppei" sheath truncate or 

 sometimes produced at one side into a small triangular limb. Spikelets 

 •^-1 by i-1 in., ellipsoid or cyliudric, chestnut-brown or straw-colored, 

 subacute, the lowest glume bract-like, empty, suborbicular, smaller than 

 the fertile ones, coriaceous, with hyaline margins, about |-surrounding 

 the stem ; bristles usually 4, longer than the nut, scabrid, brown. 

 Fertile glumes -J— i in. long, thinly membranous, either hyaline except 

 the back which is narrow and green, ovate-lanceolate, obtuse or sub- 

 acute ; or elliptic, acute, with the back and sides chestnut-brown and 

 with hyaline margins. Stamens 3. Nut J^ in. long (not including the 

 large oblong-conic obtuse subcompressed pale or brown-dotted style- 

 base which reaches sometimes -^-^ in. long), globosely obovoid, smooth, 

 biconvex, bright yellow or pale brown, the margins scarcely thickened ; 

 style above the conical base gV in. long ; stigmas 2 (very rarely 3), about 

 as long as the style. Fl. B. I. v. 6, p. 628 ; Woodr. in Joui-n. Bomb. 

 Nat. V. 13 (1901) p. 431 ; Prain, Beng. PL 1148. Heleocharis palustris, 

 Lindl. Syu. Brit. Fl. (1829) p. 280; Boeck. in Linn^a, v. 36 (1870) 

 p. 466. 



SiNU : Hyderabad, Woodrow. — Distrib. Cosmopolitan except Australia. 



7. Eleocharis Chaetaria, Rcem. ^ Schult. Si/st. v. 2 (1817) p. 154. 

 Glabrous; roots fibrous, rarely with a white filiform rhizome 1 in. 

 long ; stems 1-8 in. long, densely tufted, filiform or capillary, straight 

 or curved; sheaths sliort, membranous. Spikelets i-i in. long, ovoid, 

 obtuse, usually tinged with red, terete or compressed, with 1-4 nuts, 

 the lowest glume boat-shaped, empty, i in. long, witli green obscurely 

 3-nerved back and broad hyaline margins ; rhachilla narrowly winged ; 

 bristles 6 or fewer, rather longer than the nut, pale-brown, scabrid, 

 sometimes wanting. Glumes 6-8, subdistichous, loosely imbricate, 

 reaching I- in. long, boat-shaped, with narrow green backs and chestnut- 

 brown sides and with hyaline margins. Anthers linear, -^ in. long. 

 Nut obovoid, trigonous, ^^^ in. long (not including the acutely pyramidal 

 style-base, which is less than -^-jj in. long and nearly as broad as the nut), 

 cancellate, the angles smooth produced into short ])rominences or 

 shoulders below the convex top, dull pale-straw-colored; style short; 

 stigmas 3, very long. Fl. B. 1. v. 6, p. 629 ; Trim. Fl. Ceyl. v. 5, 

 p. 71; Woodr. in Journ. Bomb. Nat. v. 13 (1901) p. 431; Prain, 

 Beng. PI. p. 1148. Heleocharis Cluetarin, Boeck. in Linna-a, v. 36 

 (1870) p. 428. 



S. M. Country: Londa, Woodrow; Dharwar, Woodroiu. — Distrib. More or less 

 throughout India; Ceylon, Malacca, Tropics generally. 



7. SCIRPUS, Linn. 



Glabrous often tall herbs, leafless or leafy at the base only (very 

 rarely leafy all along the stem) ; stems terete, trigonous or triquetrous. 

 Inflorescence terminal or lateral, of clusters or umbels of oblong or 

 ovoid many-flowered sessile or pedicellate spikelets. Glumes spirally 

 imbricating round a stout or slender rhachilla, the lowest 2 and a 

 fpw of the uppermost empty ; hypogynous bristles or 2-7, rctrorsely 



