15. ScLERiA.] 138. CYPEBACEM. 



3. S. tessellata, Wllld. 



Stems 1-2 ft. high, rather slender, hairy or glabrate. L. linear 

 acuminate but not setaceous at tip 4-10" long by •1--2", margins 

 scabrid. Panicle narrow, glabrous, main branches remote in the axils 

 of leaves or leaf-like bracts only 1-2" long on peduncles 0-4" long. 

 Spikelets clustered in the axils of rigidly acuminate keeled bracts 

 averaging about -5" long with margins and keel scabrid. Bisexual 

 spkts. few or 0. Fern, spkts. ferruginous green -18" long, glabrous, in 

 same clusters as male spkts. Nut broadly ellipsoid-ovoid, -1" long, 

 •09" diam., white, with close much raised reticulations especially 

 when unripe, at last often nearly smooth, seated on a 3-lobed disc 

 with lobes triangular or lanceolate. 



Western Bengal and Behar, Kurz ! 



Rhizorae hardly any, roots fibrous. L. with white hairs or glabi'ate {Clarke, all 

 glabrous in our specimens), sheaths conspicuously winged or not. Fern, glume 

 broadly ovate-cymbiform cuspidate. Anthers with a large apiculus. 



4. S. annularis, Kunth. 



Externally very like S. tessellata, Willd., with triquetrous stems 

 1-2 ft. high and 3 -winged sheaths scabrid on the angles with reflexed 

 papillae, and hairy on the margins near the mouth. Spikelets in the 

 partial inflorescences more dense than in tessellata but with similar 

 rigid bracts with scabrid keels. Spikelets similar but the female disc 

 with truncate margin instead of lanceolate lobes and the nut perfectly 

 smooth white, broadly oblong or somewhat obovoid. 



This which has been found by me in the rocky hills of Bilaspur so like those of 

 the not distant Sambalpur and Palamau, and has also been found by Griffith in 

 Bengal, is almost certain to occur in Chota Nagpur or Sambalpur. Fl., Fr. Oct. 



Roots fibrous, dark red, Clarke. 



5. S. hebecarpa, Nees. 



Stems 2-3 ft. high from a woody horizontal rhizome, 3-quetrous. 

 Sheaths, or some of them, usually distinctly 3 -winged, slightly hairy 

 or villous. Leaves 1 ft. long, up to -35" bi'oad, long-acuminate or 

 caudate, more or less hair}^ on back, margins scabrous. Panicle thin 

 but terminal portion usually pyramidal, branches triquetrous or 

 subalate with long acicular bracts. Fem. glume about -1" long, 

 broadly ovate scarcely keeled, midrib produced into a mucro, disc- 

 margin with lanceolate acute thin brown lobes -04" long. (In the 

 Manbhum specimens named by Clarke from our area the disc is thick 

 with truncate margin but the nut has fallen and perhaps the lobes 

 also.) Nut when young minutely velvety, •1--12" long, subglobose 

 or ellipsoid, obscurely trigonous, narroAved at apex, straw-coloured 

 or brown, " nearly always obscurely reticulated, margins of reticu- 

 lations microscopically brown-hispid, or finally glabrate almost 

 shining," Clarke. 



Rajmahal Hills, Knrzl Ranchi, Clarke I Manbhum, Clarke I (The Manbhum 

 specimen is very like S. annnlarlg, but is named by Clarke.) Fl., Fr. Sept. -Nov. 



Var. pubescens, Sfend. (sp.). Leaves often softly villous beneath. Rachis of 

 panicles very hairy. Spkts, sometimes hairy. 



Chota Nagpur, Hazaribagh, Clarke. 



932 



