810 CLVi. CYPERACE^ (clarke). [Jimcellvs. 



irile liand. British East Africa : Ongalea Mountnins; alt. 2750 ft., Gre- 

 gory, 14 ! 



This plant is very possibly rather a Cyperus. It is in the case of very small re- 

 duced species that generic chnr.icters elude us ; Cyperus tenellus and Schoentis 

 nitens have been treated as Scirpus. 



4. CYPERUS, Linn. ; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. PL iii. 1043 

 (excluding the sections Pycreus, Juncellas, Diclidium^ and Mariscus). 



Spikes umbelled, or congested into a head, or solitary. Spikelets 

 f)_70-flowered (in C. ocArocepAaZws 3-1 -flowered) ; glumes distichous, 

 2 lowest empty, sevaral succeeding bisexual, perfecting nuts and 

 deciduous seriatim from the lowest ; rhachilla persistent. Stamens 

 3-1, anterior ; anthers oblong or linear, muticous or (rarely) crested, i.e. 

 the connective produced. Style passing continuously into the ovary, 

 not bulbous at the base ; branches 3 (in C. stoloniferus occasionally 2), 

 linear, or in a few species (C. Iiolostigma, C. nudicaulis, C. semitrijidus, 

 and others) branches short or hardly any. Nut oblong or obovoid, 

 triquetrous, plane face against the rhachilla, anterior angle not (or 

 occasionally somewhat) flattened. — Leaves all close to the base of the 

 stem, sometimes none, i.e. basal sheaths only present. The spikelets are 

 clustered or spicate in the spikes. 



Species 300 ; in all warm and warm-temperate regions — a few extending to cool- 

 temperate regions. 



A. Pycnoatacliys. — Spikelets digitate or clustered or (r.irely) subsolitary, i.e. not 

 spicate. ( Rhachilla wingless, or narrowly winged in C. Hensii.) Sect. 1-9. 



§ i. Anosporum. — Floating. Nut thickened by corky tissue at the base. Style 

 long linear ; branches 3, short. The African species leafless, with 1 head. 



Stems rather slender, at the top ^ in. in diani. . 1. C. nudicaulis. 



Stems stout, at the top rV~6 ^^- ^^ diam., triquetrous 2. C. Colymbetes. 

 §ii. MoNOCEPHAL^. — None annuals excep!) C. TeneriffcB. Stems with 1 head 

 (2 heads once seen in C. compactus). — N.B. In the following sections, among the 

 umbellate species, numerous examples with 1 head only occur. Also 49, C. dichro- 

 menaformis is constantly 1-headed. 



Spikelets small, rarely so much as ^ in. wide. 

 Spikelets brown or chestnut-coloured. 

 Style with 3 linear branches. 



Leaves narrow-linear, acute . . . . 4. C. rupeslris. 



Leaves narrow -linear, obtuse. 



Thickened base of stem oblong-cylindric . 5. C. amnicola. 

 Thickened ba?e of stem globose, bulbous . 8. C. atractocarpus. 

 Style subentire or minutely 2-3-toothed at the 



tip . . . . . . . 6. C. holostigma. 



Spikelets yellowish, more or less tinged with red. 

 Leaf-sheaths torn into pale fuscous fibres ; spike- 

 lets ^ in. wide 7. C. Kirkii. 



Leaf-sheath torn into black fibres ; sp'.kelets yV 



in. wide . . . . . . . 9. C. clavimix. 



Spikelets white or cinnamon-coloured. 



Leaves and leaf-sheaths glabrous . . .16. C . leucocephalns , 



