CyPERus. |] CYPERACE. 329 
head and 2 or 3 rays ending in head-like spikes of spikelets, occa- 
sionally very much reduced so as to consist of a single sessile spike, 
primary bracts 3 to 4, leaf-like, unequal in length. Spikes dense 
of 6 to 25 spikelets, about 4 in. or less in length and } in. or less in 
diam. Spikelets linear-oblong each with about 12 flowers; the 
2 lowest glumes empty and somewhat smaller than the flowering 
ones; flowering glumes oblong-ovate, suddenly narrowing into a 
recurved acuminate apex which is from } to % the length of the rest 
of the glume, whose total length is ;; in. Stamen 1 (always ?). 
Nut narrowly obovoid, . in. long, brown, smooth, style with its 
3 branches about as long as the nut. 
Cawnpore (Duthie); Dehra Dun (Duthie); Moradabad (Thomson) : 
Agra; Saharanpur. Drsrrip: Most tropical countries including 
most of India. 
Nore.—This plant has been often mistaken for C. uncinatus, Poir. 
but in that species the glumes are keeled and have smooth hyaline 
margins. It also has 3 stamens. The glumes in C. aristatus are 
not keeled though the midrib is prominent and the hyaline margins 
are longitudinally striate in dry specimens (not in fresh ones). 
9. C. Iria, L. Sp. Pl. 45; F. B. I. vi, 606 ; Prain, Beng. Pl. 
1143 ; Collett Fl. Siml, 556 ; Cooke, Fl. Bomb. it, 867. 
An erect glabrous annual up to 20 ins. or more in height, each plant 
producing 1 to 6 flowering stems which are sharply triangular and 
longitudinally striated. Leaves arising from near the base of the 
stem with long pale brown to reddish brown entire sheaths, blades 
linear varying considerably in length and breadth according to 
habitat, up to 14 ins. long and } in. broad but usually very much 
less, gradually tapering to an acuminate apex, rather flaccid. In- 
florescence primary a compound umbel 2-20 ins. in diameter, primary 
rays up to 8 ins. in length and often branched again in an umbellate 
manner; primary bracts up to 6, leaf-like, often very long and 
broad, more or less unequal. Spikelets, in typical plant, 8-15 flowered 
arranged along the ultimate rhachis in a spicate manner, the rhachis 
of the spikelets furnished between the glumes with narrow hyaline 
wings. The two lowest glumes empty small hyaline except for the 
midrib. Flowering glumes broadly boat-shaped, blunt or shortly 
apiculate 5-7; in. long, midrib of 3-5 nerves, wings nerveless. 
Stamens generally 2. Nut triquetrous, ellipsoid in’ outline, black 
35 in. long. Style and branches short. 
Saharanpur (Duthie); Moradabad (Thomson); Dehra Dun (Duthie, 
Gamble); Cawnpore (Duthie); Jhansi (Duthie); Aligarh (Duthie), 
