484 CLVi. CYPERACE^ (clarke). [Schcerms. 



American ; the remaining 56 beina: «n Australian group whereof a very few extend 

 to South-east Asia' or South America. 



1. S. nigricans^ Linn. Sp. PI. ed. ii. 64. Glabrous. Stolons 0. 

 Stems 6-20 in. loug, stoutly tufted, with no nodes between the basal 

 leaves and the 1 head. Leaves about J the length of the stem, x6~t^ ^^• 

 broad. Head ;^ in. in diam., of 1-15 spikelets ; bracts 2, subereet, lower 

 1-4 in. long, linear, but dilated at the base. Spikelet \ in. long, 

 maturing l-o nuts. Glumes ovate, obtuse, minutely scabrid on the 

 keel. Stamens 3, anticous. Hypogynous bristles 3-5, less than J the 

 length of the nut, yellow-brown, scabrid with upward-pointing barbs. 

 Nut in the hollow of the curved joint of the rhachilla, J the length of 

 the glume, ellipsoid, trigonous, smooth, pallid, without beak ; style 

 deciduous.— Sowerby, Engl. Bot. t. 1121 ; C. B. Clarke in Hook. f. FL 

 Brit. Ind. vi, 673, in Durand & Schinz, Conspect. Fl. Afr. v. 657, and 

 in Dyer, Fl. Ca,p. vii. 272 ; Coss. & Durieu, Expl. Scient. Alger. <^lum. 

 241 ; J. Ball in Journ. Linn. Soc. xvi. 702. Chmtospora nigricans, 

 Kunth, Enum. ii. 323 ; Boeck. in Linnsea, xxxviii. 290. 



Xfiie Xiaud. Abyssinia, /ScAimper, 173 ! Somaliland, 3/m i'rftV// CoZe .' 

 Extending from Western Europe to North-west India, also in North and Soutli 

 Africa, the United States, and Surinam. 



11). CLADIUM, P. Browne ; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. 

 PI. iii. 1065. 



Spikelets perfecting 1-3 (rarely more) nuts. Glumes imbricated on 

 all sides, 3-4 lowest empty, next containing a bisexual flower perfecting 

 a nut, uppermost reduced ; rhachilla not elongated above the lowest 

 fertile glume, Hypogynous bristles (or rarely small). Style linear ; 

 branches 3, loug; base thickened. Nut small, trigonous, crowned by 

 the enlarged style-base and continuous with it, not distinguishable by 

 a transverse constriction or line. — Mostly robust plants, of varied habit. 

 Inflorescence usually a long panicle, sometimes shortly corymbose, never 

 umbellate. 



Species, beside? the one Cosmopolitan here described, 44 ; mostly insular or near 

 tne sea, scattered throughout the warmer parts of the globe. 



&> 



1. C. jaxnaicense, CVrtnj;^, /wsf. i. 362. Glabrous. Stolons Ion 

 stout, clothed with striate pale brown ovate-lanceolate scales 1 in. long. 

 Stem 3-8 ft. high, roundish, with nodes and leaves (or bracts) through- 

 out its length. Leaves 2-3 ft. by 4-J in., scabrous on the margins. 

 Panicle oblong, often 1-2 ft. by 3-6 in. ; lowest bract similar to the 

 topmost leaf ; lowest peduncle bearing a compound corj^mb often of 

 100-200 spikelets. Spikelets yV"^ ^^' ^^^g' when mature ellipsoid or 

 ovoid, obtuse, pale brown, in clusters of 3-10 or solitary, with 2-1 

 flowers, the lower bisexual producing a nut. Glumes ovate, obtuse, 

 concave. Hypogynous bristles 0. Stamens 2. Style-base large, 

 obovoid-subpyramidal, confluent with the top of the ovary. Nut ~ in. 



