XYRIDEZ (Brown). 3 
Perenn ely annual herbs, of tufted habit, growing in A mp places. 
Leaves all salah: linear, terete or filiform, sheathing at the base. Peduncles 
erect, simple, terminated by a solitery dense head or cate leafless pe bearing one 
or more pa irs of a bags sheaths, and embraced at the base by a leafless or leaf. 
bearing sheath, Flower-h eads or sp pike es globose, ord or F elongate bracts glu- 
aceous, seep tr rigid, i mbri site: concave, or wrely s Danae oe ae the 
lower ones in a few species relemval and lea aty, f ecb an inv Flowers 
solitary any sessile in the axils of the br acts, yellow or blue, ‘enalty: of small size. 
Disrris. Genera 2; a about 130, dispersed throughout the Tropics and 
warmer regions of the earth, 
I. XYRIS, Linn. 
Sepals 3; two lateral and exterior, boat-shaped, keeled; one 
interior, membranous, convolute or obtusely ol Aap. closely 
enveloping the corolla when in the bud, circumscissile 
and deciduous as the corolla develops. Corolla with a uns tube 
and three spreading ecuneate-obovate lobes. Staminodia 3, simple, 
bifid, or two-armed, glabrous or penicillate. Style filiform, without 
tubercles or processes, 3-branched above; stigmas dilated or 
subeapitat 
wage aa, a basal sheath, naked above. The rest as in the Order. 
DistR1s. The same as for the Order. Species about 120. 
Spikes dark brov 
ngieri oh a an, ices hata, gr 2 dorsal 
(1) decipiens. 
Bracts without a grey dorsal area : 
eaves terete ee Lay ... (2) natalensis, 
Leaves flat : 
Keel of peer Ae ciliate or scabrid from 
the base to the .. (3) Umbilonis. 
Keel not silvate “ hea apex 
Bracts poset lateral pu 3-3} lin. 
long, pal i. . red (4) Rehmanni 
ieee : with lac apie margins 5 lateral 
24-28 lin. long, bro = (D) pinablanh = 
Keel of itera fo care’ not ciliate (6) ca 
Spikes straw-coloured (perhaps greenish when alive), 0 or 
e brownish ; fat of om sepals not ciliate: 
Flowering-spike globose or ovoid, 3-5 lin. thick... ... (7) a 
Flowering-spike Fasatinee about 1line thick ... ... (8) filiformis. 
. X. decipiens (N. E. Brown); leaves 5-16 in. long, 1)—2} lin. 
hae laterally flattened, linear, acuminate at the apex, gla rous, 
_ with concolorous sheaths 11-3 in. long, the sheath embracing the 
peduncle with a distinct blade like the other leaves, but flexuose a 
little above the sheath ; peduncle 2-2} ft. high, 1-1} lin. thick, 
terete, distinctly sulcate- pieries glabrous ; spike 6-9 lin. long, 5-6 
lin, thick, ovoid, acute or subacute; bracts 8-31 lin. long, 23-2 
lin. bro ad, dbhohig sbovits: pee obtuse, minutely subdenticulate, 
shining chestnut-brown, with a a very distinct, oblong-lanceolate, 
greiysh dorsal area at the apex about 1-12 lin. long and } lin. b 
7—9-nerved; nerves reticulate at the apex ; ; lateral sepals 22 lin. 
long, + lin. ti broad, pale-brown, linear-faleate or liticarlantecolate, 
B 2 
