468 CLVi. CYPERACE^ (clarke). [Fuireiia 



K. Schum. in Engl. Jahrb. xxiv. 339, t. 5, fig. H-M ; in Engl. Pfl 

 Ost-Afr. C. 126. 



]Lo'«(rer Guinea. Angola: Huilla ; damp meadows at Catumba, W^elicitsch, 

 7110! 



BSozaml). nist. Zanzibar, jBo;e?* .' Sildebrandt, 1067 I Stnhlmaun, ii. 52 ' 

 Zanguebar, Kirk, 62 ! U-sambara ; Kibaf ula swamp. Hoist, 2133 ! Usaramo ; Dav e> 

 Salaam, Kuntze, 283 ! 



Also in Madagascar. 



Imperfectly known species. 



12. F. nana, A. Rich. Tent. Fl. Abyss, ii. 497. Annual, small. 

 Stem 1-3 in. long, almost capillary, smooth, glabrous. Leaves shorter 

 than the stem, linear, subobtuse, scabrous on the margins. Spikes 

 usually 2, small, terminal, sessile, close together; bracts 1-2, unequal, 

 overtopping the spikes. Glumes numerous, closely imbricated, oboval, 

 obtuse, long acuminate. Nut ellipsoid-oblong, obtuse, terete, very 

 slenderly grooved, glabrous. Scales and hypogynous bristles 0. — EngL 

 Hochgebirgsfl. Trop. Afr, 147, 



Xflle Iband. Abyssinia: Shireli ; near Kouaieta (Kuayata), Qitarfln-Billoif 

 (ex A'. Richard.) 



14. LIPOCAKPHA, R. Br. ; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. PI. iii. 1(I54. 



Glumes densely packed in the spikelet, very numerous, imbricated on 

 all sides; 2 lowest empty, succeeded by many bearing 2-sexual nut- 

 bearing flowers deciduous in fruit, uppermost imperfect. Within the 

 glume, parallel with it, 2 elliptic or obovate hyaline scales, rather 

 shorter than the glume, are invariably present and wrapped round the 

 nut. Style small linear or 0, branches 3 (rarely 2) minute or short. ISTut 

 sessile, obovoid or linear-oblong, unequally trigonous, smooth, dark 

 brown ; style deciduous, style-base 0. Glabrous. Stem without any 

 nodes between the basal leaves, and the 1 head of 3-15 spikelets. 



Species 14 ; in the warmer portions of both hemispheres. 



There is no genus of Cyperacece concerning which more diverse views have been 

 held or more diverse explanations given of the very uniform structure. The 2 

 anticous and poeticous hyaline scales cannot very well be prophylla (biacteoles), of 

 which no trace occurs in the whole Order (unless in Ascolepis ?). 



Three explanations are in the field, viz. : 



(a) that LipocarpAa is allied to (the older botanists thought equal to) Hypo- 

 lytrum ; the 2 hyaline scales being supposed homologous with the 2 male glumes in 

 Hypolytrum. Goebel, however, has shown that the female flower in Hypolytrnm is 

 terminal; and the difference in habit between Lipocarpha and Hypolyirum is 

 extreme. 



(h) th&t Lipocarpha is allied to Scirpus ; that the 2 hyaline scales represent the 

 hypogynous bristles which have become connate in two fused bundles. This is 

 Bentham's view; and Lipocarpha is in the highest degree like Scirpus, Sect. 

 Microstyliy of which it has the nut and style, and with which it is frequently 

 confused. 



(c) that the 2 hyaline scales represent 2 sterile lower flowers, so that what is called 

 here a flower is really a spikelet of 3 flowers, whereof the 2 low er are barren. Thi.t 



