394 CYPERACE.E. [Isolepis. 



on the sides, scarious on the edges. Style 3-cleft. Nut pale-coloured, 

 crowned by the minute persistent bulbous base of the style. 



Hono-kong, Harland, Wright. Widely spread over tropical Asia, Africa, and Australia. 



3. I. supina, Br.; Knnth, Enum. ii. 196. Stems cylindrical, tufted, 

 3 in. to near 1 ft. long, erect or decumbent, with a single short leaf often re- 

 duced to the sheath. Spikelets oblong, 3 to 4 lines long, 2 to 10 together 

 in an apparently lateral cluster, the leafy bract continuing the stem. Glumes 

 acute or mucronate, with a strong green keel, brown on the sides with scarious 

 edges. Style 3-cleft. Nut dark-coloured, transversely wrinkled and almost 

 muricate, croAvned by the very short slightly thickened persistent base of the 

 style. 



Hougkong, Wright ; common in paddy-fields, Wilford. Frequent in the tropical and sub- 

 tropical regions of the Old World, extending into S. Europe. 



8. SCIRPUS, Linn. 



(Eleocharis, Br.) 



Spikelets several-flowered ; the glumes imbricate all round, only 1 or 2 of 

 the lowest empty. Flowers hermaphrodite. Hypogynous bristles usually 6, 

 sometimes fewer or more. Stamens 3 or fewer. Style 2- or 3-cleft, either 

 not thickened at the base or breaking off above a smaU bulbous thickening 

 which remains attached to the nut. — Stem leafy or leaves all radical, or re- 

 duced to a sheath at the base of the stem. Spikelets solitary or clustered, in 

 terminal or apparently lateral heads, or simple or compomid umbels. 



A large genus, distributed over every part of the globe. 



Stems leafless, except a short sheath at the base. 

 Spikelets solitary, terminal. 



Spikelet very obtuse. Glumes closely imbricate. Style 2-cleft . . \. S. capitaUis. 



Spikelets rather acute. Glumes looser. Style 3-cleft 2. 5. afflatiis. 



Spikelets 1 to 3, in an apparently lateral cluster Z. S. juncoides. 



Stem tall, leafy. Spikelets immerous, in an irregularly compound umbel 4. S. chinensis. 



1. S. capitatus, Willd. Stems tufted, 3 to 6 in. high, leafless except 

 a short sheath at the base. Spikelets terminal, solitary, erect, ovoid or oblong, 

 very obtuse, 2 to 3 lines long ; the subtending bract not differing from the 

 glumes. Glumes very closely imbricate, pale straw-coloured, broad, very 

 obtuse, scarious on the edges. Hypogynous bristles 4 to 8, rather longer 

 than the nut. Style 2-cleft. Nut obovate, smooth, dark-coloured, crowned 

 with the white flattened bulbous base of the style. — Eleocharis capitata, Br. ; 

 Kunth, Enum. ii. 150. 



Hongkong, Wright. Widely diff'ased over the tropical and subtropical regions of the New 

 and the Old World. 



2. S. afELatus, Benth. Apparently an annual, tufted and slender, 3 to 6 

 in. high. Leaves none, except a short sheath at the base of the stem. Spike- 

 let solitary, erect, ovoid-oblong, 1| to 3 lines long, rather acute, with 1 or 2 

 broad transparent very obtuse deciduous glume-like bracts at the base. 

 Glumes obtuse or the upper ones rather acute, of a reddish-brown, wdth a 

 green or brown keel, and often scarious at the edges. Hypogynous bristles 

 about 6, rather longer than the nut. Style 3-cleft. Nut crowned by the 



