cxLVi, cypehace.t:, 899 



4. Fuirena umbellata, liouh. Dcscrip. ct Icon. (1773) p. 70, t. 19, 

 fig. 3. Perennial ; rhizome creeping, stout, horizontal, woody, with 

 filiform root-fibres ; stems 1-4 ft. long, stout or slender, striate and 

 ribbed, glabrous or nearly so, with nodes throughout their length. 

 Leaves variable, G-10 in. long, up to f in. broad, linear-lanceolate, 

 acuminate, 3-5-nerved, often ciliate towards the base, tlie margins 

 smooth or nearly so ; sheaths long, closed at the mouth, with a small 

 brown ligule. Spikelets ^— | by -^ in., sessile, oblong, crowded in simple 

 or compound axillary and terminal pedunculate sometimes subpaniculate 

 dark-brown clustei's |-1 in. in diam., with tomentose or villous 

 peduncles ; rhachilla slender ; bracts beneath the clusters short, cuspidate. 

 Glumes closely imbricate, at lengtli deciduous, -^ in. long (not including 

 the muci'o), obovate-oblong, rounded or sometimes slightly retuse at the 

 apex, membranous, pubescent on the back and with the upper margins 

 ciliate, strongly 3-nerved, the nerves uniting into a strong, more or less 

 hairy mucro about J- in. long; hypogynous scales {petals) -^ in. long, 

 nearly sessile, quadrate-obovate, reddish-brown, 3-nerved, the upper 

 margin thickened, apiculate. Stamens 3. Nut y^— ^ in. long, trape- 

 zoidally obovoid, stipitate, trigonous with sharp angles, chestnut-brown, 

 smooth, wirh a long pale beak ; style -J- in. long ; stigmas 3, as long as 

 the style. Fl. B. I. v. 6, p. 666 ; Boeck. in Linnjea, v. 37 (1871) p. 110 ; 

 Trim-. Fl. Ceyl. v. 5, p. 80 ; Woodr. in Journ. Bomb. Nat. v. 13 (1901) 

 p. 432 ; Prain, Beng. PI. p. 1157. — Flowers : Nov. 



Deccan : Alandi, Woodrow. S. M. Country : Londa, Woodrnw. — Distiub. More oi* 

 less throughout India ; Ceylon, most warm (not too dry) countries. 



10. HYPOLYTRUM, L. C. Eich. 



Stout perennial herbs with a woody rootstock and very stout root- 

 fibres ; stem erect, trigonous, leafy. Leaves long, narrow, linear or 

 ensiform, coriaceous, 3-nerved. Spikelets small, ovoid or subglobose, in 

 broad subumbellate panicles with stoat spreading branches, or the panicle 

 contracted into a more or less compact lobed head ; bracts leaf-like. 

 Glumes containing 1 hermaphrodite flower having 2 opposite, lateral, 

 keeled, free or connate hypogynous scales (or bx-acteoles) containing 2 

 (rarely 3) stamens and a pistil ; hypogynous bristles 0. Stamens 2 

 (rarely 3); filaments elongate. Ovary terminal, flattened, beaked ; style 

 continuous with the ovary, early deciduous ; stigmas 2-3, filiform, some- 

 times thickened at the apex. Fruit a rounded or obtusely angled nut 

 with a thick hard endocarp, beaked, often with vein-like sculpturing. — 

 DiSTRiB. Tropical I'egions of both hemispheres ; species 39. 



Mr. Clarke regards the whole not as a single flower, but as an inflorescence with the 

 glumes between the stamens and pistil undeveloped. 



1. Hypolytrum Wightianum, Boecl: in Linncea, v. 37 (1871) 

 p. 130. Glaucescent ; root-fibres stout ; stem slender, 2-3 ft. long, 

 trigonous, scarcely as thick as a goose-quill, quite smooth. Leaves rather 

 rigid, often longer than the stems, linear, acuminate, flat or with the 

 basal portion complicate, 3-nerved, |— f in. broad, the margins and 

 midrib spinulose towards the top. Spikelets in dense compound 



3n2 



