Kyllinga. | CYPERACEA. 765 
Common in most warm countries, and possibly only naturalised in New 
Zealand. It is very closely allied to the equally abundant K. monocephala, to 
which I formerly referred it, but which can be distinguished by the glume of the 
fertile flower having the upper part of the keel winged or crested and more or 
less glandular. 
2. CYPERUS, Linn. 
Annual or more commonly perennial herbs. Stems erect, simple 
below the inflorescence. Leaves at the base of the stem, usually 
long, the lowest sometimes reduced to sheaths. Inflorescence 
umbellate or capitate, often large and compound ; bracts at the base 
long, leaf-like, spreading. Spikelets oblong or linear, compressed ; 
rhachilla persistent. Glumes usually many, distichous; the two 
lowest empty; four at least and generally many of the succeeding 
ones hermaphrodite and fruit-bearing, fallmg away from the rha- 
chilla one by one, commencing with the lowest; the uppermost 
1-3 sterile or empty. Stamens 2-3, rarely 1. Style continuous 
with the ovary, not thickened at the base; branches 3, filiform. 
Nut triquetrous or plano-convex, the flat face against the rhachilla, 
surface smooth. 
A large genus of over 300 species, most abundant in the tropical and sub- 
tropical districts of both hemispheres, comparatively rare in temperate regions. 
The two New Zealand species are widely distributed ; one of them is certainly a 
recent introduction, and possibly the other as well. 
Small, 1-3in. high. Inflorescence of a single head ; 
spikelets 1-3 28 op me 56 o6 
Tall, 1-2 ft. high. Inflorescence in a compound umbel ; 
spikelets very numerous te Sic at -. 2. C. vegetus. 
1. C. tenellus. 
The tropical C. rotwndus, Linn., easily recognised by the black ovoid tubers 
on the creeping stolons, and hence frequently known by the name of ‘‘ nut- 
grass,” has become naturalised in the vicinity of Auckland. It is a most per- 
nicious weed. 
1. C. tenellus, Linn. f. Swppl. 103.—A small densely tufted 
annual. Stems numerous, very slender, almost filiform, 1—3in. 
high. Leaves few, much shorter than the stem, filiform. Spike- 
lets 1-3 together, digitate, much flattened, oblong, obtuse, large 
for the size of the plant, 4-+ in. long; bracts 2, setaceous, one erect 
and continuous with the stem, the other much smaller. Glumes 
10-25, regularly distichous, ovate, obtuse or mucronate, boat- 
shaped, conspicuously 5—9-nerved, varying in colour from almost 
white to red-brown. Stamens 1 or 2. Style-branches 3, linear. 
Nut rather more than half the length of the glume, elliptical, 
acutely trigonous, smooth.— Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 745; 
Benth. Fl. Austral. vii. 265; C. B. Clarke in Fl. Cap. vii. 164. 
NortH Istanp: From the North Cape southwards to Taranaki and 
Hawke’s Bay, abundant. Sea-level to 1500 ft. November-December. 
A common South African plant, doubtfully indigenous in temperate Aus- 
tralia and New Zealand. 
