7. Eleocharis.I 



138. CYPERAGEM. 



Lower sheaths often reddish, uppermost with a short subulate or lanceolate 

 appendage. Branches of inflorescence when present shorter or longer than the 

 spikelet with a sheath round their base. There is a short neck between the nut 

 proper and the style-base (which latter CZa>-Are describes as bulbiforni !), and the 

 species appears almost inseparable from E. suhcivipara, Boeck, except by habit. 

 The latter has very slender flexile stems and small heads. 



8. FIMBRISTYLIS, Valil. 



Usually tufted sedges with short woody rootstock or fibrous roots, 

 not stoloniferous. Leaves usually near base of stem, rarely 0. Spike- 

 lets 1-many clustered or discrete, umbellate when numerous, many 

 flowered with all the glumes imbricate or in a few lower distichous. 

 Lowest 1-2 rarely 3 glumes empty, several succeeding with 2 -sexual 

 flowers, upper tabescent. Stamens 3-1, anterior. Bristles 0. Style 

 usually more or less pubescent or hairy, its base dilated and con- 

 stricted below the dilatation, deciduous altogether or persistent, 

 stigmas 3-2. Nut usually obovoid, often with a foot or gynophore 

 (much dilated in F. poclocarpa). 



The glumes in this genus are much more variable in size than in Cyperus. 



The length of the spikelets in the following key is the length before the fall of 

 the lower glumes ; the spikelet continues to elongate after the fall of the lower 

 glumes, though the glumaceous part often remains fairly uniform in length. 



I. Stigmas 3, nut usually 3-gonous, rarely compi'essed. Style 

 sometimes glabrous : — 

 A. All glumes spirally imbricate. Spkts. mostlj' small :— 



1. Spikelets discrete (not sessile in clusters), many, in 



compound umbels : — 

 Spkts. subglobose under 'V. Gl. •0jt-"05" . . .1. miliacea. 

 Spkts. ellipsoid acute, over "1". Gl. '06" . . .2. quinquangularis. 

 Spkts. lanceolate •17--25". Gl. -OS-'l". Stems flat 



above .......... 3. complanata. 



Spkts. ellipsoid •2-'3". Gl. •1--16". Rhizome stout . 4. Tkomso7ii. 



2. Spkts. sessile in clusters, clusters umbelled :— 

 Spkts. •15--25". G). -IS-'ie". Rhizome stout. L. 



B. 



Spkts. 



5. Junciformis. 



Lower glumes distichous or sub-distichous 

 discrete or solitary, usually large : — 



1. Umbels compound. Spkts. "3". Umbels with short 



hairy bracts 



2. Spkts.' one only or few in the umbel : — 

 Spkts. 5-9 in the umbel. •15-'3". Gl. '06- "OS" . 

 Spkts. solitary (rarely 2-3) on the stem, •3--5" . 



II. Stigmas 2, nut narrow or Inconvex. Style much com- 

 pressed, nearly always hairy above or below. Glumes 

 imbricate spiral : — 



A. Spkts. one only or few (rarely up to G) in the umbel, 



mostly large : — 



1. Spkts. only one on the stem. Stem obscurely 4-an- 



gular, leafless or nearly so :— 

 Spkts. •25-'-i". Nut linear-oblong .... 

 Spkts. •2--35". Nut sub-globose, transversely fluted 10. acuminata. 



2. Spkts. 1-3 (rarely G). Stem not 4-angular. Leafy: — 



Spkts. ovoid "S--?". Nut stipitate . . . .11. schaenoides. 

 Spkts. linear -oblong -S-'?", usually 1-2 sessile and 



1 ray 12. subbisplcata. 



B. Spkts. many (1 only in diphylla car. sometimes few in 



ferrugiuea) umbelled, usually small: — 

 1. Glumes discrete (sub-clustered in spatkacea) : — 

 a. Glumes with awn as long as the blade (e.xc. some- 

 times cestivaltg) . Small very tufted often pubes- 

 cent herbs : — 



6. fusca. 



7. tenera. 



8. monostachi/a. 



tetragona. 



91-i 



