r)10 cLVi. CYPERACE^ (clarke). [Scleria. 



longer than the stem, flat, J in. broad, on the edge very scabrous 

 retrorsely ; ligule membranous, elongate, obtuse, coloured, glabrous. 

 Panicles few (about 3), far apart, subtriangular, loose, terminal with 

 several branches, 1 J in. high ; branches subsessile, the lower 3 with leaf- 

 like bracts; lateral panicles small, J-J in. high, peduncled, with A 

 branches, supported by 3 very long (8-9 in.) bracts ; peduncles 1-| in. 

 long, compressed ; rhachis hairy ; bracteoles setaceous, long. Male 

 spikelets 2-3 together, several flowered ; female spikelets paired. Glumes 

 variegated with red. Nut hard, stalked, scarcely shorter than the 

 glumes, ovoid, attenuate at the tip, trigonous, minutely hairy, pale 

 violet (or sometimes pallid), shining; margin of disc separated from 

 the nut, very short, rigid, papery, shallowly 3-lobed, plicate wrinkled, 

 pallid ; disc persistent on the rhachilla, patelliform, orbicular, pallid 

 within. — Boeck. in Verhandl. Bot. Ver. Brandenb. xxxi. 71. 



XiOwer Guinea. Gaboon : Sibange Farm, Buettner, 8 (ex Boeckeler). 



Somewhat allied to S, Flagellum, Benth. 



25. DIPLACRUM, R. Br. Prod. 240. 



Spikelets all 1 -sexual ; female without rudiment of upper flowers, 

 so that the 1 flower appears terminal ; otherwise as Scleria. — Scleria^ 

 Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. PI. iii. 1070, partly. 



Species 6, in Tropical and Subtropical regions, 3 in the Old World, 2 in the 

 New, besides 1 common to both regions. 



There is no real line between this genus and Scleria ; in many small species of 

 Scleria the rudiment of the male flower, of 1 or 2 small glumes, is reduced to 

 nute scales or wanting ; and the female flower then appears terminal. 

 Stems 2-5 in. long, slender . . . . .1. Z>. africanum. 



Stem 20 in. long, robust . . . . . . 2. D. lonqifolium. 



1. D. africanum, C. B. Clarke in Durand dj Schinz, Conspect. 

 Fl. Afr. V. 668. A weak, nearly glabrous annual. Stems tufted, 

 2-5 in. long, slender, leafy their whole length. Leaves 1-1 J by ^— J in., 

 tip rather suddenly acuminated. Inflorescence of minute axillary heads 

 of spikelets, often continued nearly to the baseof the stem ; lower heads 

 on peduncles rarely exserted so much as J in. Spikelets ^^-yV ^^- ^^^^i 

 ovate-lanceolate, green or yellowish. Glume to female flower ovate- 

 lanceolate, entire at the tip, 3-nerved, concave at the base. Nut 

 minute, subglobose, white, with 10-14 longitudinal strife from summit 

 to base which do not anastomose. — K. Schum. in Engl. Pfl. Ost-Afr. 

 0. 129. D. pygmcmtm., Boeck. in Linnsea, xxxviii. 434 (excl. the 

 Australian examples), and in Flora, 1879, 56'.^ ; Oliver in Trans. Linn, 

 Soc. xxix. 170, not of Nees. D. caricinum, T. Thorns, in Speke, Nile, 

 Append. 654, not of R. Br. 



Upper Guinea. Senegambia, Heudelot, 675 ! Sierra Leone, Scott-EUiof, 

 4341 ! Niger Territory : Nupe, Barter, 1041 ! 



irile Xiand. British East Africa: Jur ; Jur Ghattas, Schweinfurlh, 26l^\ 

 Madi, Speke ^ Grant ! 



