348 CYPERACEA. | HELEOCHARIS. 
Spikelets distinctly wider than the stems, 
Spikelets 75-3 in. long, nut minute bipped by 
the minute style base . ; . 1. H. atropurpurea. 
Spikelets 4-1 in. long, nut y4 in. ag style 
base almost half as long as the nut . 2. H. palustris. 
Spikelets scarcely wider than the stem, glumes 
with narrow scarious margins. : . 3. H. plantaginea. 
1. H. atropurpurea, Kunth, Enum. ii (1837) 151; F. B. I. vi, 
627 ; Prain, Beng. Pl. 1149 ;; Cooke, Fl. Bomb. ii, 889. 
Annual, stems 2-6 in. high, very slender, tufted, sheaths short, mem- 
branous. Spikelets ~5-% in. long, ovoid, much broader than the 
stem, rachilla slender, pitted. Glumes =o°t in. long, broadly ovate- 
oblong, obtuse, keel green, margins broad membranous dark colored. 
Bristles 4-7 as long as the nut, white, often wanting or very small. 
Nut minute 3,-z; in. long, black, polished, obovoid, biconvex, tipped 
with the pale disciform style-base, style 2-fid. 
Dehra Dun (Parker) common in drying up rice fields. Moradabad 
(Thomson), Shahjahanpur (Duthie). DistR1B.: most tropical coun- 
tries. 
9. H. palustris, R. Br. Prodr. Fl. Nov. Holl. (1810) 224 in obs. ; 
F. B. I. vi, 628 ; Prain, Beng. Pl. 1149 ; Cooke, Fl. Bomb. vi, 890 ; 
Collett Fl. Siml. 559. 
Stems 4-20 in. high 2 sx-t in. diam. tufted, longitudinally striate, sheaths 
membranous, truncate or sometimes produced as a small triangular 
limb. Spikelets 3-1 in. long, ellipsoid or cylindric, yellow or brown, 
wider than the stem, supported at the base by a bract continuous 
with the top of the stem and half-surrounding it, margin of the 
bract broad, scarious, rachilla stout. Glumes much imbricate, about 
5 in. long, ovate-lanceolate or elliptic, keel green margins broad 
hyaline or brown. Bristles 4-6, as long as the nut, brown, retrorsely 
scabrid. Nut 3, in. long, broadly obovoid, biconvex, pale brown, 
tipped by the broadly conical style-base which is nearly half as long 
as the nut, style long, stigmas 2. 
Saharanpur (Jameson), Aligarh (Duthie, Jameson), Kheri (Inayat). 
Distris.: Cosmopolitan except Australia. 
8. H. plantaginea, R. Br. Prodr. Fl. Nov. Holl. (1810) 224 in 
obs.; F. B. I. vi, 625; Prain, Beng. Pl. 1148 ; Cooke, Fl. Bomb. 
¢1, 888, 
