Fimbristylis. | CYPERACEAE. 471 
bracteoles under each spikelet very small or altogether wanting in the 
interior of the heads or spikes. Glumes 3—4, distichous, the lowest one 
or two smaller and empty, the two upper nearly equal, compressed, carinate, 
ee both the pias hermaphrodite flower and the rudimentary one 
vith its minute glume. No hypogynous bristles or scales. Stamens 3 or 
fewer. Style bifid, set thickened at the base. Nut laterally compressed, 
enveloped within and deciduous with the two larger glumes, Spikes 
3—5, sessile, crowded in a dense, usually solitary, globose or spike-like 
head, which is supported by 2—4 long leafy bracts. Stems leafy at the 
base, rarely leafless. Leaves grass-like. 
A small genus, chiefly tropical, but extending also into N. America and 8. Africa. 
1. K. monocephala, Rotth. — Kunth, Enum. vi i 129. — Stems from 
a long creeping rhizome, weak, compressed, 4—12 high. Leaves thin 
and flat, shorter than the stem, about 1” see scaberulous above on 
edges and keel. Spikelets 1-flowered, numerous and dense in a single 
globose head of about 3” in diameter, with an involucre of 3 very long 
leafy bracts. Glum 8, thin; the lowest very small, transparent, obtuse 
e 
into a stiff point; 
2 or 3. Nut aitca) _ about 1/2 the length of its: glume. — 
in Linnaea, XXXV, 
Very common on moist pastures from the sea up to 3000 ft. ~ name: «Kaluha». 
In sandy soil near nn or it often does not reach more than 1—2° in height. ~—* 
the K. pumila, B, in Kth., 1. c. p. 132, from the Sandw. Islds. (in aa Lucae). — The speci 
is widely diffused over the tropical regions of the whole world. 
3. FIMBRISTYLIS, Vahl. 
Spikelets many- to several-flowered, terete, the glumes imbricate all 
round, only 1 or 2 of the lowest empty. Flowers herma wise: without 
ypogynous bristles or scales. Stamens 3 or fewer. Style 2- or 3-cleft, 
thickened at the base and articulate below the bulb, which is generally 
deciduous from the apex of the lenticular or triangular achene. — Mostly 
low herbs with stems leafy at the base. Spikelets in simple or compound 
cymes, rarely single, oftener in contracted clusters or in irregular compound 
umbels. 
ws A large genus of 200-300 species, widely distributed over the warmer regions of the 
be. 
Style bifid, hairy; achene eaters —— acute: 
Spikelets 3—5, single in a simp r cymose umbe 1. F. Hawatiensis. 
Spikelets n ora in aeaaies ie ple igs of compound umbel 2. F. polymorpha. 
Style , naked; achene trigonal, puptpaalbs 
Spikelets obovoid, clustered, in an open sand ee o_— umbel ‘3. F. cymosa. 
Spikelets ovoid, crowded in a single Rada head 4, F. pycnocephala. 
