Materials for a Flora of the Malayan Peninsula. Ill 



XIII. XYEIDEAE. 



Tufted herbs, with stiff linear grassy leaves. Scape simple, naked 

 slender. Flowers sessile in a short terminal head or spike of stiff dark 

 brown rounded imbricating bracts, bisexual fugacious yellow. Brac- 

 teoles (or sepals) 3 boat-shaped or obovate, unequal. Petals 3 clawed 

 orbicular often denticulate yellow. Stamens 3, with sagittate anthers. 

 Staminodes 3 often bearded. Ovary free imperfectly 3 celled placentas 

 3, ovules many. Ovules anatropous. Style trifid. Stigmas capitate. 

 Capsule loculicidally 3 valved. Seeds numerous very small linear or 

 ellipsoid. 



Xyris, L. 



Characters of the order. Distribution, tropics of both hemis- 

 pheres, about 80 species. 



Leaves quite flat. 



Robust leaves broad i-^> inch ... ••• 1. XI indica. 



Slender wiry, leaves stiff narrow rVe inch 2. X. anceps. 

 Leaves hardly flattened narrow. 



Scape slender tall 2 edged ... ... 3. X. pauciflora. 



Scape slender terete tall 



Leaves long. Heads i inch through ••■ 4. X. Ridleyi. 



Leaves very short. Heads k inch ••• 5. X. bancana. 



1. X. INDICA, Linn. Sp. PL 62. A large tufted plant with fibrous 

 roots. Leaves linear acute or obtuse flat herbaceous li feet long, i 

 inch wide. Scape stout grooved angled 2 feet tall. Capitulum globose 

 t to| inch through or oblong f inch long. Bracts orbicular dark 

 brown with a paler edge i inch wide. Flowers yellow £ inch across. 

 Bracteoles winged serrulate. Petals claw as long as the sepals, limb 

 orbicular erose. Anther oblong, obtuse, base acute. Vahl. Enum. II. 

 204. Roxb. Fl. Ind. I. 179. Mart, in Wall. PI. As. Ear. III. 30. 

 Kunth. Enum. IV. 20. Miq. Fl. Ind. Bat. III. 528. Steud. Syn. PI. 

 Cyp. 288. fil. Fl. Brit. Ind. VI. 364. Trimen. Fl. Ceyl. IV. 297. 



Malacca : Rice fields near Bukit Sabukor (Derry 227) ; Selangor : 

 (Cantley's Coll.) ; Province Wellesley (King's Coll. 1619) ; Penang : 

 (Curtis 1927), Lankawi, Kwah (Ridley). Distrib. India, Ceylon, Malay 

 Islands, Siam. 



Native name " Rumput Bagau ; " " Jeringu Padang." Rice fields 

 and wet open swamps. 



2. X. ANCEPS, Lam. 111. I. 132. Tufted plant with strong wiry 

 roots. Leaves numerous rigid often twisted, linear acuminate, bases 

 broad often red and polished, 4 inches to 24 long i inch wide. Scape 

 slender often twisted 6 to 24 inches or more ribbed. Capitulum ovoid 



