400 <'LVf. CiVF'KRAf'T.L^-', CrLARKK). [^f(frisr/iS. 



51. M. sqxiarrosus, C. B. Clarke in Uook.f. Fl. Brit. Ind. vi. C23. 

 A slender glabrous annual. Stems tufted, 1-5 in. long, at the top 

 trigonous and smooth. Leaves as long as the stem, y^-|- in. broad. 

 Umbel subsimple; rays 1-5 in. long; bracts much longer than |. the 

 umbel, similar to the leaves. Spikes of G-20 spikelets, densely spicate. 

 Spikelets compressed, (1-20 flowered, greyish-green to brown, divaricate, 

 disarticulating in one piece above the two lowest empty glumes. Glumes 

 boat-shaped, the 8-5-nerved keel excurrent into a recurved bristle. 

 Stamen 1 ; anther linear-oblong, not crested. Nut J the length of the 

 glume (exclusive of the bristle), linear-oblong, trigonous, curved, 

 chestnut-red. Style |- the length of the nut, red ; branches ?y, linear, 

 short. — 0. B. Clarke in Durand & Schinz, Conspect. Fl. Afr. v. 594. 

 Cyperus squarrosus, Linn. Amoen. Acad. iv. 303, and Sp. PI. ed. 

 ii. 66 partly ; Rottb. Descr. et Ic. 25, t. 6, fig. 3 ; Kunth, Enum. ii. 

 22 ; Boeck. in Linnasa, xxxv. 501 ; C. B. Clarke in Journ. Linn. Soc. 

 XX. 284 and xxi., 94 (excl. var. /3) ; K. Schum. in Engl. Pfl. Ost-Afr 

 C. 118. C. maderaspatamiSf Willd. Sp. PI. i. 278, excl. syn. Plukenet ; 

 cf. Benth. Fl. Austral, vii. 268 in note. 



irile I>and. British East Africa : Mombasa, Taylor ! 



nXozamb. Dist. British Centi^al Africa : Xyasaland ; Buchanan, 624c ! 



Also in the Mascareue Islands, India and Cochinchiua. 



52. M. hemisphsericus, C. B. Clarke in Durand d: Schinz, Con- 

 spect. Fl. Afr. V. 589. Glabrous. Rhizome short. Stems lJ-3 

 ft. long, robust or medium-sized, at the top trigonous and smooth or 

 somewhat rough. Leaves | the length of the stem, up to ^ in. broad, 

 often scabrous on the margins ; the large examples have stout leaves 

 often marked with transverse lines, smaller examples have much greener 

 and narrower leaves. Umbel simple or compound ; rays attaining 2 in. 

 in length, or more frequently rays very short and the umbel condensed ; 

 bracts 5, similar to the leaves, the lowest attaining 8-12 in. in length. 

 Spikes densely spicate, of numerous rectangularly spreading spikelets, 

 very white or shining straw-coloured in the typical form, but some 

 examples (even young) are dusky-browD. Spikelets up to 1 by Jy in., 

 with 18 nuts, more usually shorter with 6-10 nuts, in fruit appearing 

 distinctly compressed, but in examples (not ripe) where the glumes are 

 adpressed erect the spikelets are subterete or very little compressed ; 

 rhachilJa disarticulating in one piece above the 2 lowest empty glumes. 

 Lower empty glume sometimes lanceolate and muticous, sometimes 

 terminating in a long twisting bristle. Glume ovate, obtuse, boat-shaped, 

 1 -coloured, obscurely 9-nerved, in the typical form very minutely ciliate 

 on the upper margins. Nut J the length of the glume, narrowly oblong, 

 hardly curved, black. Style J the length of the nut ; branches 3 ; 

 linear. — Mariscus sp. n. 2, T. Thoms. in Speke, Nile, Append. 654. 

 Mariscus cf. daciyliformis, C. B. Clarke in Trans. Linn. Soc. ser. 2, 

 Bot. iv. 53. Cyjyerus hemisphaericus, Boeck. m Flora, 1859, 436 ter. 

 (a typogr. error for 439 bis.), in Peters, Beise Mossamb. Bot. 541, and 

 in Linnsea, xxxvi. 345 ; Oliver in Trans. Linn. Soc. xxix. 166 ; K. 



