194 Journal of the F.M.S. Museums. [Vol. VI, 



275. SCHCENUS DISTICHUS, n. Sp. 



A small tufted plant, forming small clumps; the stem 

 erect, from less than an inch to 6 inches or more long, 

 branched, and terminating in flattened branches with distichous 

 close-set leaves. Leaf- bases coppery, above bright green, 

 linear, triquetrous, scabrid, stiff, i to 6 inches long and ^^2 i"ch 

 or less thick. Inflorescence shorter than the leaves, from one 

 of the upper axils. Culm slender, strongly curved, bearing 2 

 or 3 sheathing leaves. Sheaths with a broad scarious margin; 

 back green, grooved; from the sheath rise one or two branches 

 half an inch long, angled, scabrid, bearing one fusiform 

 spikelet ^ inch long. Glumes 4, imbricate, lanceolate, 

 maculate, deep violet-purple, keeled; lower ones empty, 

 terminal one only fertile. Style trifid, slender, purple. Nut 

 pale pyriform, covered with ihe pericarp, obscurely 3-angled 

 and beaked; hypogynous bristles none. 



Padang, abundant, but seldom in flower; Perak, Gunong 

 Kerbau, 7,000 feet altitude {Aniff, May igio). • 



This remarkable little sedge, with its leaves forming small 

 fans, was very abundant on the Padang in dry or slightly 

 damp spots. It forms clumps a few inches across, and in 

 most places was only an inch or two high. I found it larger 

 in damper shadier spots under bushes on the summit of 

 Gunong Tahan, and the specimens sent from Gunong Kerbau 

 by Mohammed Aniff were very much larger, having a stout 

 stem six inches long and leaves of equal length. 



The flowers were difficult to find, and it does not seem to 

 be at all floriferous. It only bears a few spikelets on its very 

 short culm. The spikelets resemble those of other species of 

 the genus, but there are no visible hypogynous bristles. I do 

 not know any plant resembling it. 



276. SCLERIA CARPHIFORMIS, n. Sp. 



Stems 2 to 3 together in a tuft, thick at base, covered with 

 hairy red sheaths about one inch or less long, lower sheaths 

 split on one side with a lanceolate point on the other. Leaves 



3 or 4, linear, obtuse, 6 inches, long, | inch wide, glaucous 

 green with long white hairs on the edges and keel. Panicle 

 shorter, 2 inches long, with two or three distant fascicles of 

 spikelets, subsessile, or the lower one shortly pedicelled. 

 Bracts leafy, the upper-most one elongate, i^ inch long, 

 resembling an ordinary leaf. Spikelets 2 or 5 together, 2 to 3 

 males to one female. Male spikelet |t inch long, subterete; 

 glumes dark red with white hairs. Four lower glumes 

 narrowly lanceolate-cuspidate, empty; four terminal ones 

 similar, but each containing 3 stamens. Filaments bright red, 

 longer than the glumes. Anthers very narrow, linear, long, 

 minutely cuspidate. Female spikelet shorter and thicker, with 



4 bracts, the lowest ovate, lanceolate, but the others lanceolate, 

 reddish, all with white hairs. Flower solitary. Style slender, 

 trifid. Nut hemispheric with a broad base, ^ inch long, 

 white, thickly sprinkled over with pustules bearing brownish 

 hairs stellately arranged. Disc large, flat, orbicular. 



