764 CYPERACER. [Kyllinga. 
Spikelets 1-7-flowered, lowest flower alone hermaphrodite ; 
glumes not distichous. Stamens 3, rarely elongating. 
Hypogynous bristles wanting . 9. CLADIUM. 
Spikelets 1-3-flowered, upper flower alone hermaphrodite. 
Stamens 3, rarely elongating. Hypogynous bristles 
present .. ae = ¥o .. 10. LEPIDOSPERMA. 
Tall, harsh and grassy. Spikelets 1-3-flowered, upper 
flower alone hermaphrodite. Stamens 3-6, usually 
elongating in fruit and oni the nut. Hypogynous 
bristles wanting . .. 11. Gants, 
Dwarf alpine plants forming ‘dense cushions in bogs. 
Spikelets solitary or 2-3 together, 1-flowered; glumes 
3. Hypogynous scales (perianth) 6, persistent .. 12. OREOBOLUS. 
Tribe Caricea%.—Spikelets moncecious, the male and female flowers in the 
same or in distinct spikelets; rarely dicecious. Nuts enclosed in an entire 
or 2-fid inflated sac (utricle). 
Spikelet solitary, androgynous. Rhachilla bregyeng be- 
yond the utricle into a hooked bristle .. 13. UNCINIA. 
Spikelet solitary, or more often clustered or ‘spicate or 
panicled, androgynous or unisexual. JRhachilla not 
produced beyond the utricle.. an fe .. 14. Carex. 
1. KYLLINGA, Rottb. 
Stems slender, simple, erect, leafy at the base. Spikelets small, 
numerous, compressed, 1—3-flowered, densely crowded in 1-3 ovoid 
or cylindric terminal heads or spikes subtended by, 2-6 unequal 
linear leaf-like bracts. Glumes 4-7, distichous; the two lowest 
small, empty; the next, or rarely the two next, hermaphrodite and 
fruit- bearing ; the upper ones male or the uppermost smaller and 
empty; in fruit the rhachilla falls away above the two lowest 
glumes. Hypogynous scales wanting. Stamens 1-3. Style con- 
tinuous with the ovary, not thickened at the base; branches 2, 
filiform. Nut laterally compressed, smooth. 
A genus of about 40 species, widely spread through the warmer regions of 
both hemispheres, but not found in Hurope. 
1. K. brevifolia, Hottb. Desc. et Ic. t. 4, f. 3—Rhizome creep- 
ing, elongate. Stems numerous from the rhizome, slender, 4-12 in. 
high or more. Leaves flat, grassy, usually shorter than the stems, 
75-4 1m. broad. Bracts usually 3, spreading, similar to the leaves. 
Spikes solitary or rarely 2-3 together, broadly ovoid, greenish, 
1_1in. long. Spikelets about din.; fertile flower usually solitary. 
Glume of fertile flower ovate, meron: eglandular, keeled; keel 
not winged above, 3-nerved; sides of glume with 3-4 strie. 
Stamens 2. Nut ellipsoid, pale yellow-brown, about half as long as 
the glume.—C. B. Clarke in Hook, f. Fl. Brit. Ind. vi. 588. K. mono- 
cephala, Cheesem. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xi. (1879) 434 (not of Rottb.). 
NortH Isnanp: Auckland—From Mongonui and Ahipara northwards to the 
North Cape, W. 7. Ball! T. F.C. December—February. 
