IBS. CYPERACEjE. [1. Cyperus. 



2. C. platystylis, Br. 



Usually robust with stems and leaves up to 2 ft. long, stoloniferous. 

 Inflorescence compound, but heads often very short-peduncled, so 

 that they often appear as one, 1-10" diam. 8pikelets bright brown, 

 umbellately or digitately clustered, -2—5" long. Glumes (lower) 

 •1" long, broadly ovate or ovate-oblong concave, scarcely cymbiform 

 (cymbiform, Clarke), the back with three green rather distant nerves, 

 sides thinner nerveless but streaked with red, apex minutely mucro- 

 nate. Nut dorsally compressed and subplano-convex but keeled 

 and with lateral ridges so that it is 3-gonous, the ridges yellow and 

 corky. 



A tauk-floater {Clarke). On banks of the Ganges (not apparently floating), 

 Kurz. Bhagalpur (Nathpur), Ham. I Santal Parganahs, £^urzl Also Rajshaye 

 and Lower Gangetic Plain so probably over the whole of the North-Eastern 

 districts, Fl., Fr. May-Feb. 



Stolons covered with ovate striate brown scales. Stems flattened below, 3-gonous 

 upwards, "o-l" thick at base, np to 42" long and subsolitary (Clarke) or clustered 

 {Kurz's specimen). L. up to Vi-'o" wide with scabrous cutting edges. Bracts 

 2-18", leaf-like. Rhachilla with sti-ong transverse ledges but not deeply excavate 

 after fall of glumes. Fil. hgnlate; anths. linear-oblong with a small red mucro. 

 Style about half nut, flattened ; stigmas nearlj- as long as style. 



3. C. difformis, L. 



Tufted, annual, 6-20" high, well marked by its acutely triquetrous 

 weak stems and congested globose grey heads of linear-oblong spike- 

 lets •17--3" long with very numerous minute glumes only -025" long, 

 broader than long (Avhen unfolded), obovate and truncate. The 

 heads are •3--5" diam. usually several to many in irregular umbels 

 with bracts 2-10" (usually 2-6") long, sharply keeled. Nut broadly 

 ellipsoid, subequally trigonous, very pale brown or straw-coloured, 

 nearly as long as the glume. 



In wet g-round, sand of river-beds, etc.. frequent. Sikkim Tarai, King \ 

 Bhagalpur, Hum. ! Monghyr, Ham. ! Singbhum, common ! Hazaribagh, C.B.C. I 

 Chota Nagpur, Wood ! Throughout India, C.B.C, and almost certaiulj' throughout 

 our area. Fl., Fr. Aug.-Jan. 



L. usually somewhat shorter than the stem, •l-'2'' broad, several-nerved, 

 flaccid. Umbel often appearing lateral from the longest bi-act being erect. 

 Rhachilla with pale centre and grey wings between the ledges. G-lumes with 

 green centre and red or brown sides, when dry with almost white centre tips and 

 margins. Nut ■02'', surface neither striate nor punctate (even under high magn.j. 



4. C. flavidus, Retz. 



An annual ca^spitose sedge or stems subsolitary, 2-12" high with 

 the yellow or brown inflorescence usually occupying over half its 

 height and very compound, 2-9" diam. Spikelets very numerous 

 •2--3" rarely elongating to -5" long (after fall of lower glumes), linear. 

 Glumes minute •02--04" long, ovate-oblong (when unfolded), with 

 rounded not keeled back triangular in shape and more opaque than 

 the more hyaline sides, apex rounded, midrib and nerves very obscure 

 and no mucro. Stamens 1, more rarely 2. Nut practically globose or 

 very obscurely 3-sided, white and minutely verrucose (under high 

 mag.) when quite ripe •01--015" long, Avith a minute stipes. 



Very conimon in rice-flelds. Monghyr, Ham. I Western Bengal, "common 

 everywhere in rice-fields, wet places etc.," Kurz [ Ranchi, Clarke [ Hazaribagh, 



893 



