CLXXII. CYrERACE^E. (C. B. Clarke.) G85 



26. SCLERIA, Berg. 



Perennial or annual. Stems erect, leaf-bearing. Leaves narrow, sub- 

 3-nerved, often serrate cutting severely ; base sheathing. Panicle often 

 stout, elongate, compound, sometimes narrower reduced nearly to a spike ; 

 primary bracts leaf-like, secondary narrow often setaceous. Flowers all 

 unisexual. Spikelets unisexual, rarely bisexual ; bisexual spikelet with 

 one fern. fl. below, and a few males above ; fern, spikelet similar, but upper 

 male portion reduced to a small rudiment pressed laterally against the nnt 

 or occasionally (when the fern. fl. appears terminal). Glumes usually 

 2-4 empty below the fern, glume, or in the male spikelets 2 below the male 

 glumes ; fern, glume concave, margins not united at base round the pistil. 

 Stamens 3-1 ; anthers linear-oblong, often mucronate. Nut osseous, often 

 shining; style linear, not dilated at base, deciduous; branches 3, linear. 

 Gynopliore usually prominent under the nut, apex dilated, often into a 3- 

 toothed saucer. Species 150, in moist warm countries. 



Subgenns I. HYPOPORUM (Genus), Nees in Linnsea, ix. 303, character 

 widened. Bisexual spikelets many. 



1. S. pergrracilis, Kunth Enum. ii. 354 ; very slender, nearly gla- 

 brous, roots fibrous, spikelets clustered on a linear interrupted spike, stvle 

 3-fid, nut white tubercled fenestrate, disc obsolete. Strachey Gat. PI. 

 Jfumaon, 73 ; TJiw. Enum. 354; Boeck. in Linntva, xxxviii. 438. Hvpo- 

 porum gracile, Nees in Edinb. Phil. Journ. xvii., p. 267, and in Wight 

 Contrib. p. 118. Scleria, Wall. Cat. 3406. 



Widely scattered from GURWHAL, alt. 5600 ft., Duthie, to SYLHET, Wallich. 

 BEHAE, Kurt. CHOTA NAGPOBE, T. Anderson. DECCAN PENINSULA, Wight. 

 CEYLON, Thwaites. DISTRIB. Trop. Africa. 



Stem 10-20 in. Leaves 4-10 by % in. Spike 2-6 in.; flusters (of 2-5 sp'kelets) 

 g-f in. apart ; bract ovate-lanceolate, hardly longer than Bisters. Bisexual spikelets 

 scarcely ^ in., numerous, terminal, with sometimes a male spikelet close beneath. 

 Fern, glume boat-shaped, ovate-lanceolate, greenish ; glume below it similar, sub- 

 opposite ; superior male glumes thinner, brownish, more obtuse, not keeled. Nut 

 -2\j in. in diam., ovoid, trigonous, base narrow trigonous. Dr. Trimen writes : " The 

 lemon-scented leaves are used to drive away mosquitoes." 



2. S. lithosperma, Sw. Prodr. 18, and Fl. Ind. Occid. 92, in note ; 

 slender or medium, nearly glabrous except the sheaths, rhizome woody, 

 panicle thin straggling, style 3 fid, nut white smooth (except in var. /3), 

 disc nearly obsolete!. Nees in Wight Contrib. 117 ; Dalz. & Gibs. Bomb. 

 FL 288; Tlnv. Enum. 354; Boeck. in Linncea, xxxviii. 451; Kurz in 

 Journ. As. Soc. xlv., pt. ii. 159 (not Roxb.}. S. tenuis, Retz. Obs. iv. 13; 

 Roa-b. FL Ind. iii. 574. S. Wightiana, Steud. Sijn. Cyp.' I7Q. Scirpus 

 lithospermus, Linn.- Sp. PL [ed. 1] 51. Schosmis lithospermus, Linn. 

 Sp. PI. [ed. 2], 65. Olyra orientalis, Lour. Fl. Cochinch. ii. 674. Hypo- 

 porum lithospermum, Nees in Mart. Fl. Bras. Cyp. 172. Scleria, W~all. 

 Cat. 3417, 3418, 3419Rheede Sort. Mai. xii. t. 48. 



Throughout INDIA (except the West arid area), alt. 0-3000 ft, common, from 

 SIKKIM to CEYLON and MALACCA. ANDAMANS and KICOBAES, Kurz. DISTRIB. 

 All warm regions except Continental Africa. 



Rhizome elongate, horizontal. Stems l|-3 ft., not tufted. Leaves 6-12 by 

 i in. ; sheaths usually hairy. Panicle (fully developed) a ft., distant 'primary 

 branches 4 in., ascending, again divided ; but often very thin with few spikelets. 



