172 CYPERACEAE (SEDGE FAMILY) 



-- Flowers destitute of bristles and of beak to the achene ; inflorescence terminal. 



1. Cyperus. Spikelets few-many-tlowered, usually elongated or slender. 



2. Kyllinga. Spikelets 1-flowered (but of 3 or 4 scales), glomerate in a sessile head. 



+- -i- Flower furnished with bristles ; achene beaked ; inflorescence axillary. 



3. Dulichium. Spikelets 6-10-flowered, slender, clustered on an axillary peduncle. 



* * Scales of the several-many-flowered spikelet imbricated all round (subdistichous in no. 5). 

 - Achene crowned with the bulbous persistent base of the style; flowers without inner scales 

 (bractlets). 



M- Hypogynous bristles (perianth) generally present ; culm naked. 



4. Eleocharis. Spikelet solitary, terminating the naked culm. Stamens 2-3. 



M- -H- Bristles always none ; culm leafy. 



5. Dichromena. Spikelets crowded into a leafy-involucrate head, laterally flattened, the scales 



more or less conduplicate and keeled. Many of the flowers imperfect or abortive. 



6. Psilocarya. Spikelets in broad open cymes. Style almost wholly persistent. 



7. Stenophyllus. Spikelets in an involucrate umbel. Style-base persistent. 



+- +- Achene not crowned by the bulbous base of the style. 



H- Flowers without inner scales. 

 = Style-base bulbous, deciduous ; perianth none. 



8. Fimbristylis. Spikelets in an involucrate umbel. Culm leafy at base. Style wholly 



deciduous. 



= = Style-base not thickened ; perianth-bristles usually present. 



9. Scirpus. Spikelets solitary or clustered, or in a compound umbel ; the stem often leafy at 



base and inflorescence involucrate. Bristles 1-8, or none. Stamens 2 or 8. 



10. Eriophorum. As Scirpus, but the silky elongate bristles very numerous. Stamens 1-3. 



H- -n- Flower with one or more inner scales. 



11. Fuirena. Scales of the spikelet awned below the apex. Flower surrounded by 3 stalked 



petal-like scales alternating with 8 bristles. 



12. Hemicarpha. Flower with a single very minute hyaline scale next the axis of the spikelet. 



Bristles none. 



13. Lipocarpha. Flower inclosed by 2 inner scales, one next the axis, the other in front of the 



achene. Bristles none. 



Tribe II. RYNCHOSPdREAE. Spikelets mostly 1-2-flowered, with 2-many of the lower scales 

 empty. 



14. Rynchospora. Spikelets terete or flattish ; scales convex, either loosely enwrapping or regu- 



larly imbricated. Acheue crowned with a persistent tubercle or beak, and commonly sur- 

 rounded by bristles. 



15. Cladium. Spikelets terete, few-flowered, the scales, etc., as in the preceding. Achene desti- 



tute of tubercle. No bristles. 



II. Flowers unisexual. 



Tribe III. SCLERlEAE. Flowers monoecious ; the staminate and pistillate in the same or in differ- 

 ent clustered spikes. Achene naked, bony or crustaceous, supported on a hardened disk. 



16. Scleria. Spikes few-flowered; lower scales empty. No bristles or inner scales. 



Tribe IV. CARlCEAE. Flowers monoecious in the same (androgynous) or in separate spikes, or 

 sometimes dioecious. Achene inclosed in a sac (perigyniuni) or spathe. 



17. Kobresia. Achene in the axil of a spathe-liko glume. 



18. Carex. Achene completely surrounded by the perigynium, the style protruding through a 



small aperture at the top. 



1. CYPERUS [Tourn.] L. GALINGALE 



Spikelets many-few- flowered, mostly flat, variously arranged, mostly in 

 clusters or heads, which are commonly disposed in a simple or compound ter- 

 minal umbel. Scales 2-ranked (their decurrent base often forming mar-ins or 



