36 Cyperacecs. \Cypems. 



with red-brown, 5-7-veined, sides broadly membranous, 

 margins and tip narrowly scarious ; stam. 3, anth. long, 

 narrow, muticous; nut ^ the length of the glume, obovoid or 

 oblong, obtuse, trigonous, black, opaque, granulate, style 

 shorter than the nut, stigmas 3, capillary. 



Cultivated ground in the low country; a very common and a trouble- 

 some weed. Fl. all the year (?). 



All hot countries. 



A pestilent weed in many countries. The tubers yield a perfume, 

 and are astringent and diuretic. It is difficult to distinguish from states 

 of C. tuberosus in the absence of the tubers of the latter. The long 

 flaccid 1. and slender habit distinguish it from C. stoloniferus. 



35. C stoloniferus, Retz. Obs. iv. 10(1786). 

 Clarke in Journ. Linn. Soc. xxi. 173. C. P. 3005 in part. 

 Fl. B. Ind. vi. 615. 



Perennial; rootstock of elongate, stout, woody, creeping,, 

 branching stolons, clothed with hard acute scales, and bearing 

 ovoid persistent leafing and eventually flowering tubers; stems 

 4-8 in., distant on the rootstock, slender or rather stout,, 

 rigid, base tuberous, obtusely trigonous, angles smooth ; 1. as 

 long as the stem or shorter, erect or recurved, rigid, very 

 variable in breadth, often subulate and squarrosely recurved,, 

 sometimes flat or complicate, margins scabrid above; umbel 

 simple, rays from almost O to I in., rather stout, bearing 3— & 

 subterminal spreading pale spikelets ; bracts 3, leaf-like, longest 

 up to 3 in.; spikelets \~\ in., linear or linear-oblong, acute,, 

 not strongly compressed, 12-20- fid., more or less red, rha- 

 chilla stout, narrowly winged ; glumes \ in. long, closely 

 imbricate, very persistent, broadly or orbicularly ovate, obtuse, 

 membranous with broad hyaline margins, dorsally rounded, 

 5-7-veined, speckled with red-brown ; stam. 3, anth. nearly as 

 long as the glume, subacute; nut half as long as the glume or 

 more, obovoid, strongly dorsally compressed, obtusely tri- 

 gonous, top rounded, often apiculate by the style-base, dark 

 brown, polished, style stout, rather shorter than the nut, 

 stigmas long, rather stout, capillary. 



Sandy seashores: Galle (Gardner), Calpentyra(Trimen). Fl. Jan., &c. 



Shores of the Indian and Malayan Peninsulas, Mauritius, China, Malaya, 

 Australia. 



Probably a common littoral sand-loving plant, but overlooked. I 

 have seen only two Ceylon specimens, a very small one from Galle 

 (without stolons), and a larger from Trimen with imperfect leaves. The 

 spikelets are commonly described as terete in Fl. B. Ind. I am doubtful 

 of this being the C. stoloniferus of Retz., which may be C. rotundus from 

 the meagre description. — J. D. H. 



36. C. dig-it atus, Roxb. Fl. Ind. i. 205 (1832). 



C. auricomus, Clarke, I.e. 188; Trim. Syst. Cat. 100. C. P. 3940. 

 Fl. B. Ind. vi. 618. 



