CYPERUS. | CYPERACE., 327 
5. C. niveus, Retz. Obs. Fasc. 5 (1789) 12; F. B. I. vi, 601; 
Prain, Beng. Pl. 1142 ; Collett Fl. Siml. 555; Cooke Fl. Bomb, 
it, 864, | 
A perennial erect glabrous herb. Rhizome horizontal short 
almost entirely composed of the bulb-like stem-bases and giving off 
long slender fibrous roots below. Stem-bases nodose and covered 
with dark-brown non-fibrous leaf sheaths the lowest of which are 
devoid of blades ; each nodose stem-base gives rise to a tuft of leaves 
and a single simple slender smooth longitudinally striated stem up 
to 20 ins. long but generally shorter and terminating in a single 
head of spikelets. Leaves narrowly linear, tapering to an acutel 
triangular apex, nearly as long as or decidedly shorter than the 
stem, ;'; in. broad, margins finely serrulated. Head of 3 to 13 spike- 
lets, simple, more or less spheroidal, up to 14 ins. in diameter, usually 
less; primary bracts 2-3 leaf-like, narrow, unequal, up to 24 ins. 
long. Spikelets linear, or linear-lanceolate, much compressed, up to 
1 in. long and } in. broad, white or pale straw coloured. The lowest 
glume generally empty and somewhat reduced; flowering glumes 
16 to 40 in each spikelet, ovate-lanceolate, subobtuse, } in. long and 
4 in. broad when spread out, markedly compressed with a sharp 
keel right to the apex, 5 to 6 paralled nerves on each side of the 
keeled midrib. Stamens 3, filaments } in. long, anthers linear, 
muticous. Nut obovoid-ellipsoid % in. long, triquetrous. Style 
with its branches 4 in. long, divided about half way down. 
Moradabad (Thomson); Saharanpur (Lowrie); Kheri (Inayat) ; 
Bahraich (Inayat); Gonda (Inayat); Gorakhpur (Harsukh) ;° Pili. 
bhit (Inayat); Agra; Ajmere (Lowrie). Northern India south to 
Hyderabad and Eastwards to China. 
6. C. diffusus, Vahl, Enum. ii (1806) p. 321; F. B. I. vi, 603 : 
Prain, Beng. Pl. 1142. 
Perennial, rhizome short roots wiry. Stems 8-30 in. high, sharply 
triquetrous, clothed at the base with fibrous sheaths. Leaves about 
as long as the stem 4-# in. wide, thin, dark green above paler beneath, 
somewhat scabrid on the margins and on the prominent vein on 
either side of the midrib. Inflorescence a usually decompound 
umbel 4-12 in. diam. bracts several, broad, leaflike, the longest 
exceeding the rays. Spikelets $-$ in. long in digitate clusters of 
2-9 with some solitary on slender pedicels; rachilla with narrow 
persistent wings. Glwmes yy in. long and broad, boat-shaped, pro- 
minently mucronate, keel green 3-5-nerved, margins brown or white. 
Stamens 2-3. Nut 7 in. long, ellipsoid, triquetrous, black, style 
with its branches ;', in. long, divided almost to the base. 
woody, 
