EriopJiorum.'] CLXXII. CYPERACE^;. (C. B. Clarke.) 66& 



ALPINE HIMALAYA, alt. 8-16,000 ft. ; head of Jumna Valley, Jacquemont ; 

 Nynee Tal, Thomson ; Chupcha ia Bhotan, Griffith. 



This may be regarded as a depauperated alpine form of JE. comoswn ; but the 

 examples are numerous, exactly alike, from distant localities ; and there are wanting 

 intermediate forms. 



12. FUIRENA. Eottb. 

 Stem bearing leaves or leaf-like bracts even in its upper half. Leaves 



trass-like, base sheathing. SpiJcelets clustered, with numerous perfect 

 owers, tabescent at top. G-lumes imbricate on all sides, strongly aristate, 

 hairy in upper half. Hypogynous bristles 6 (3 in the position of sepals, 3 

 of petals) or much reduced, or ; 3 sepals bristle-like, 3 petals (in the 

 typical species) battledore-shaped. Stamens 3 anticous, or 2. Style long, 

 slender, glabrous, finally deciduous ; branches 3, long. Nut small, obovoid, 

 or ovoid, triquetrous, more or less stalked, smooth reticulated or trabecu- 

 late, usually narrowed at top often with a minute beak (which may be the 

 persistent style-base). Species 25, scattered all warm regions. 



The spikelets with the stem leafy in upper half, are like no other sedges but the 

 Sylraticce section of Scirpus, from which Fuirena is known by its strongly aristate 

 glumes. 



Sect. I. PsEUDO-SciRPUS. Three inner hypogynous bristles (petals) 

 linear or narrow, or more often 0. 



1. r. pubescens^JSTzmtf/z. Enum. ii. 182; spikelets in a terminal 

 cluster (axillary clusters not rarely added), hypogynous bristles or 

 rudimentary linear, style 3-fid, nut smooth white not (or most minutely 

 obscurely) reticulated. BoecJc. in Linncea, xxxvii. 104 (excl. all Indian 

 syns. and specimens). Scirpus pubescens, Lam. III. i. 139; Desfont. Fl. 

 Atlant. i. 52, t. 10. Carex pubescens, Poir. Voy. en Barb. ii. 254. C. 

 Poiretii, Linn. Syst. fed. Gmelin] ii. 140. Isolepis pubescens, Roem. 4" 

 Sch. Syst. ii. 118. 



PUNJAB ; Thomson (Herl. Brit. Mus.}. DISTEIB. S.W. Europe, all Africa. 



Rhizome creeping, short. Stems 12-20 in., triquetrous, glabrous except at top. 

 Leaves 2-8 by i in., glabrous or hairy. Spikelets in clusters of 5-1, ovate -oblong, 

 f in. long ; bracts as long as spikelets (occasionally very much longer). Glumes 

 lurid black or glaucescent, often somewhat regularly 5-ranked. Nut subsessile; 

 beak pyramidal, minutely scabrous. 



2. P. Wallichiana, Kunth Enum. ii. 182 ; spikelet-clusters corymbed, 

 hypogynous bristles or linear (see also var.), nut slenderly striate longi- 

 tudinally finely trabeculate between strias. F. cuspidata, Kunth I. c. 187 ; 

 Dalz. & Gibs. Bomb. Fl. 286. F. pubescens, Boeck. in Linnsea, xxxvii. 104 

 (all Indian syns. and specimens, not of Kunth}. Scirpus cuspidatus, 

 Eofh. Nov. PI. Sp. 31. Fuirena, Wall. Gat. 3545. 



N.W. INDIA. Hurdwar, Wallich; Sutledge Valley, Thomson. CENTRAL 

 INDIA; Goona, &c., King. KHANDWA; Duthie. POONA; Jacquemont. BOMBAY, 

 Dalzell, &c. 



Hardly distinguishable from F. pubescens, Kunth, but by the elegantly striate 

 nut, and more compoundedly corymbose inflorescence. Leaves and sheaths glabrous. 

 Sepals often ^~| nut, linear, often unequal, retrorsely scabrous or smooth, often 0. 

 Petals always (except in var.). Nut ellipsoid, triquetrous, narrowed at both ends, 

 yellow brown or testaceous ; beak small, pyramidal, hardly scabrous ; outermost 

 cells transversely oblong, superimposed regularly in longitudinal series. 



