678 OLXXII. CYPERACE.E. (C. B. Clarke). [Hypolytrum. 



and H. longirostre. Style continuous with ovary, persistent ; branches 2 

 long. Nut small, but often overtopping bracteoles, biconvex, osseous, 

 snbpersistent ; style-base ultimately becoming a conical or ovoid beak. 

 Species 25, tropical and subtropical. 



This and the following four genera, included under the division Hypolytrece (see 

 p. 587), or Mapaniece, are so peculiar in structure that the following observations 

 may prove useful. Spikelets small, in spikes resembling the spikelets of a stout 

 Scirpus ; the (apparent) glumes being obtuse bracteoles. Spikelets containing one 

 terminal fern. fl. (of a pistil only) and two opposite boat-shaped 1-glumed monan- 

 drous male fl. at its base ; between these two basal males and the terminal female 

 are placed 0-11 concave or nearly plane glumes unsymmetrically whorled, sterile or 

 1-6 monandrous ; the three inner glumes (empty), often appearing nearly as sepals 

 to the pistil. Glumes to the two lowest male flowers (squamellae), acutely keeled, 

 hairy on keel, placed laterally with respect to the bracteole. Stamens small; 

 anthers not crested. 



In Hypolytrum the spikelet might be regarded as a single flower, consisting of a 

 bract, two opposite boat-shaped bracteoles, 2 stamens and a pistil. But in Mapania 

 .(and other genera) the number of male and barren glumes interposed between the 

 squamellse and the pistil shows that this flower is really an inflorescence, as in 

 Euphorbia. The species are sometimes polygamo-dicecious, some plants producing 

 only empty nuts with abnormal beaks. The seven Indian species here described 

 might be treated as H. latifolium with five varieties. 



1. H. latifolium, L. (7. Rich, in Pers. Syn. i. 70 ; stems stout 

 triquetrous upwards, leaves long often ^-1 in. broad, style 2-fid, nut 

 (fertile) wrinkled brown or chestnut, beak small conical pale (large when 

 nut is barren). Thw. Enum. 346 (/3 and part a) ; Kurz in Journ. As. Soc. 

 xxxviii. part 2, 72 (partly). H. giganteum, Wall. Cat. 3404 (partly); 

 Nees in Wight Contrib. 93 (partly) ; Boeck. in Linnvea, xxxvii. 131. H. 

 schoenoides, Nees in Linnaea, ix. 288. H. myrianthum, Miq. Fl. Ind. Bat. 

 iii. 333. H. latifolium and diandrum, Dietr. Sp. PI. ii. 365. Tunga 

 diandra, Roxb. Fl. Ind. i. 184. Scirpus anomalus, Retz. Obs. v. 15. 

 Albikkia scirpoides and schoenoides, Presl. Rel. Hcenk. i. 185, t. 34, 35. 

 Hypolytrum, Wall. Cat. 3402, 3403, 3404 (mainly). 



SIKKIM and ASSAM to SINGAPORE, TBAVANCORE, CEYLON, NICOBAB and 

 ANDAMAN ISLDS. DISTRIB. Malaya, China, Austral., Polynesia. 



Rhizome perennial, short; roots thick, smooth, very tough. Stem 1-3 ft., 

 smooth or slightly scabrous, bearing nodes and leaves above the base, often above the 

 middle. Leaves often 6-13 in., scabrous on margins. Panicle 2-6 in. diam. 

 pyramidal, compound-corymbose or as if depressed-umbellate, often dense, sometimes 

 depauperated with few spikes; branches divaricate, scabrous, very rigid. Spikes 

 nearly all solitary, young -i in. oblong-obovoid, fruiting | in. subglobose. Glume* 

 (i.e. bracteolee) closely spirally imbricate, scarcely -^ in. long, concave, elliptic, 

 obtuse, membranous, 1-nerved, brownish. Squamellce f glume. Nut (without beak) 

 a little longer than glume, sessile ; beak about length of nut. Wall. Cat. 3404 is 

 this mixed with Scirpus chinensis, Munro, and a Mapania. In some specimens from 

 the Khasia Terai the nuts are empty, their beaks inflated ovoid-conic twice as long 

 as the nut ; these Boeckeler (Linnsea, xxxvii. 130) calls the Indian H. mauritianum. 

 It is possible to refer the Mauritian plant to a var. of latifolium ; but, if these two 

 are kept distinct, it is not possible to arrange the Khasian plant under both. 



2. XX. Wig-htianum, Boeck. in Linnsea, xxxvii, p. 130 ; stems stout, 

 leaves long -f in. broad, panicle compound dense, style 2-fid, nut (fertile) 

 straw-colrd. or pale, beak conical pale i-f nut. H. giganteum, Nees in 

 Wight Contrib. p, 93 (partly). Rheede Sort. Nalab. xii. t.. 58, 



