Hypolcena.'] CLV. restiace^e (brown). 205 



striate, reticulate or minutely tuberculate ; albumen copious, fleshy or 

 mealy ; embryo minute, lenticular or obovoid, seated in a (^vity of the 

 albumen opposite the hilum. — Perennial or rarely annual herbs of 

 rush- or sedge-like habit, densely tufted or with a creeping rhizome, 

 which is densely covered with coriaceous scales. Stems rigid, simple, 

 or branched, bearing few or many convolute, persistent or deciduous 

 sheaths, which are sometimes produced at the apex into a linear 

 straight or curved leaf. Infloregence similar or very dissimilar in the 

 two sexes, varying from a single terminal 1 to many-flowered spikelet, 

 to a raceme, umbel, cyme or panicle of few or many spikelets, which 

 are solitary or clustered in the axils of small or large and sometimes 

 coloured sheaths (spathes of authors). Bracts imbricate, I or more of 

 the lower barren, usually longer than the flowers. Bracteoles present 

 or absent. 



An order of about 300 species, mostly natives of South Africa, AustraliH, 

 Tasmania and New Zealand, with 1 in Cochin China, 1 in Chili, and 1 (or 2 ?) 

 in Tropical Africa. 



1. HYPOLiENA-, R. Br. ; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. PI. iii. 1035. 



Flowers dioecious. Male flowers : Perianth segments (I, in two 

 series, subequal or the outer larger, two of them more or less condupli- 

 cate and keeled, glumaceous or the inner membranous. Stamens ;* ; 

 fi.laments filiform, free ; anthers linear-oblong, 1 -celled, opening by one 

 longitudinal slit. Pistillode rudimentary or none. Female flowers : 

 Perianth segments 6, in two series, the inner membranous or hyaline. 

 Staminodes 3, minute, or none. Ovary 1-celled, 1 -ovulate ; styles 2. 

 Fruit ovoid or trigonous, 1-celled, indehiscent, sometimes thickened at 

 the apex. Seed solitary, pendulous. — Perennial branching herbs. 

 Sheaths closely convolute, persistent. Spikelets arranged in spikes, 

 racemes, cymes or panicles, or solitary or clustered at the ends of the 

 branches, often distichous, those of the male piant 1 to many-flowered, 

 of the female 1 -flowered Bracts imbricate ; bracteoles none. 



A genus of several species, natives of South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, 

 with the following from Tropical Africa. 



1. H. Mahoni, N, E. Br. Stems 1^^-20 in. (or more ?) high, 

 branching from the base to the middle, J-j lin. thick; branchlets 

 rather more slender, minutely punctate or almost smooth. Sheaths 

 4-6 lin. long, closely convolute, obtuse, with a short terete obtuse 

 apiculus, opaque brown, persistent. Male inflorescence a terminal 

 spike \-\ in. long, composed of 2-3 distant spikelets in the axils of 

 ovate brown sheaths 2-3 lin. long. Spikelets 2^-3 lin long and about 

 as much in breadth, ovate, 3-5-flowered, with a minutely scurfy- 

 pubescent rhachis, winged by the decurrent margins of the bracts, and 

 more or less zigzag. Bracts lf-2|- lin. long, \-\ lin. broad, oblong or 

 ovate-oblong, acute or subobtuse, decurrent on the rhachis at the ba.«e, 

 subcoriaceous, brown. Perianth-segments subecjual, alK)Ut 2 lin. long, 

 \ lin. broad, the 3 outer linear, acute, 2 of them compliaite and keeled, 

 brown, glabrous, the three inner lanceolate, acute, thinner than the 



