770 CYPERACES. [Fimbristylis. 
solitary terminal spikelet. Spikelets many-flowered. Glumes im- 
bricate all round or rarely distichous; the lowest 1-2 empty; the 
remainder all hermaphrodite, or the uppermost male or sterile. 
Hypogynous bristles wanting. Stamens 3, more rarely 2 or 1. 
Style often hairy or ciliate, with a bulbiform or conic base, deci- 
duous; style-branches 3 or 2. Not obovoid, trigonous or biconvex, 
often narrowed at the base. 
A large genus of about 130 species, found in all tropical or warm-temperate 
regions. 
1. F. squarrosa, Vahl. Enwm. 11. 289.—A slender more or less 
pubescent annual 2-8in. high; stems numerous, tufted, striate. 
Leaves linear, setaceous, shorter than the. stems. Umbel ter- 
minal, usually compound, 1-3in. diam.; rays slender, unequal, 
1-2in. long; bracts 3-4, similar to the leaves, often exceeding 
the umbel. Spikelets numerous, on slender pedicels, 4—-Lin. long, 
narrow -ovoid, brownish. Glumes elliptic-lanceolate, acuminate, 
keeled, 3-nerved, more or less squarrose. Stamens 1 or 2. Style 
pubescent, the bulbiform base with numerous long hairs which 
hang over the nut and are closely appressed to it ; style-branches 2. 
Nut about 4 the length of the glume, obovoid-oblong, biconvex, 
pale-yellow, smooth. 
Var. velata, C. B. Clarke.—Nerves of the glumes almost fused into a solid 
keel, the excurrent tip not nearly so squarrose.—F’. velata, R. Br. Prodr. 227; 
Hook. f. Hl. Nov. Zel. i. 272; Benth. Fl. Austral, vii. 309. F. dichotoma, Hook. 
f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 303 (not of Vahi.). 
Nortu Istanp: Auckland—Bay of Islands, Colenso! near Auckland(?), 
Sinclair; Port Waikato, Kirk! hot springs at Ohinemutu, Lake Rotorua, 
Kirk! T. F.C.; Lake Rotomahana, Fulhol. Sea-level to 1000 ft. Decem- 
ber—February. 
The typical form of the species is found in most warm countries; the var. 
velatais restricted to eastern Australia and New Zealand. 
6. SCIRPUS, Linn. 
Glabrous annual or perennial herbs of very various habit, small 
and tufted, or tall and stout with a creeping rhizome. Leaves 
usually irom near the base of the stem, long or short, sometimes 
reduced to appressed sheaths. Spikelets usually many-flowered, 
solitary or fascicled, or more numerous and umbellate or panicled. 
Glumes imbricate all round the rhachis; lowest 1 or 2 empty; 
several or many succeeding ones hermaphrodite and fruit-bearing ; 
the uppermost sterile. Hypogynous bristles 3-8 or wanting. 
Stamens 3 or fewer. Style long or short, passing gradually into 
the nut; style-branches 2 or 3. Nut obovoid or broadly oblong, 
trigonous or plano-convex, sessile or nearly so. 
