384 CYPERACEiE. [Oyperacea. 



Hypogynous bristles 4 or G 8. Scirpus. 



Hypogynous scales 3, flat 9. Fuirena. 



Spikelets 1- -flowered (or with a second male flower J, closely im- 

 bricate in small heads or spikes resembling spikelets. 



Scales under the spikelets small or none 2. Kvllingia. 



Scales under the spikelets as long as them, imbricate and glume- 

 like. 

 Spikes in a sessile head. Glumes concave (very thin) . . .3. Lipocarpha. 



Spikes paniculate. Glumes flat, keeled 4. Hypoelytrum. 



Spikelets 1- or few-flowered, with several empty glumes below 

 them ; in panicles, clusters, or spikes, but not imbricate. 

 Hypogynous bristles 6. Nut crowned by the base of the style 10. Rhynchospora. 

 No hypogynous bristles. 



Nut thick, tapering at the top. Spikelets paniculate . . .11. Cladium. 

 Style articulate below the bulbous base. Spikelets in a ter- 

 minal head. No leaves 12. Arthrostylis. 



Stamens 4 to 6, very long and persistent. Spikelets clus- 

 tered in spikes, forming a narrow panicle 13. Gahnia. 



Nut seated on a thickened toothed disk. Spikelets clustered 



in compound spikes 14. Lepidosperma. 



Flowers unisexual, in unisexual or androgynous spikelets. 



Nut very hard, seated on a thickened entire or lobed disk . . .15. Scleria. 

 Nut enclosed in a 2-toothed utricle 16. Carex. 



1. CYPERUS, Linn. 



Spikelets several-flowered (very rarely 2- or 3 -flowered). Glumes disti- 

 chous, all nearly equal, with 1 flower in each, or 1 or 2 lowest rarely empty. 

 Flowers hermaphrodite, without hypogynous scales or bristles. Stamens 3 

 or fewer. Style continuous with the ovary, not bulbous at the base. — Spike- 

 lets in clusters, heads, or spikes, which are usually several together in a simple 

 or compound irregular umbel. 



A very large tropical and subtropical genus, represented by a few species in more tempe- 

 rate regions, and quite disappearing in the extreme north and south. 



Style 2-cleft. Nut flattened. 



Spikelets obtuse. Nuts ovate or obovate. 



Spikelets pale-coloured, rather narrow, shining. Glumes scarious 



on the edge. Stamens 2 1. C. vulgaris. 



Spikelets broad. Glumes edged with red-brown. Stamens 3 . . 2. C. Eragroslis. 

 Spikelets acute, densely clustered. Nuts narrow-oblong .... 3. C. polystachya. 

 Style 3-cleft. Nuts more or less 3-angled. 



Spikelets obtuse. Nuts as long as the very obtuse glumes. 



Spikelets in dense globose heads. Glumes dark-brown, scarcely 



one-third line long 4. C. difformis. 



Spikelets in loose clusters or spikes. Glumes at least two-thirds of a 

 line long. 



Spikelets very flat, yellowish-green 5. C. Iria. 



Spikelets narrow-linear, more or less brown 12. C. distans. 



Spikelets acute or tapering to the end. 

 Spikelets 2 to 3 lines long. 



Spikelets clustered at the ends of the rays. 



Slender plant. Glumes scarcely pointed, not £ line long, all 



flowering 6. C. Haspan. 



Low stiff plant. Glumes above 1 line long, with prominent 



points, the lower 2 smaller and empty 7. C. radians. 



