Marzscus.] Cyperacece. 41 



Perennial ; rootstock short ; stem. 1-5 ft., stout, obtusely- 

 trigonous, smooth; 1. as long as the stem or longer, up to \ in. 

 broad, 3-veined, coriaceous or spongy, margins and keel sca- 

 berulous ; umbel very large, decompound, rays many, tri- 

 gonous, up to 6 in. long, simple or bearing secondary or 

 tertiary umbels, the ultimate rays terminated by globose 

 heads (contracted spikes) |— \\ in. diam. of innumerable, 

 narrow, stellately spreading spikelets ; bracts very many, long 

 and broad in large specimens, few and narrow in small, leaf- 

 like; rhachis of spike T V in. long, persistent glumes minute; 

 spikelets ^— \ in., very slender, striate, terete, few- to 14-fid., 

 red-brown, shining, rhachilla very slender, internodes \ as long 

 .as the glumes, with oblong persistent wings ; glumes loosely 

 imbricate, erect, straight, oblong, obtuse, dorsally rounded, 

 hardly keeled, veins obscure, margins not hyaline ; stam. 3, 

 anth. nearly as long the glume, very slender, obtuse; nut about 

 \ shorter than the glume, stipitate, oblanceolate, trigonous, 

 acuminate, beaked, pale brown, style shorter than the nut, 

 stigmas long, capillary. 



Apparently very rare. I have seen only the the C. P. specimens 

 collected by Gardner at Kurunegala in 1847. Fl. July. 

 Also in India, China, Malaya, Mauritius. 



4. 1H. paniceus, Vahl, Enum. ii. 373 (1806). 



Cyperus umbellatus, Benth.; Thw. Enum. 345 ; Trim. Syst. Cat. 101 

 (part). C. umbellatus var. paniceus, Clarke, in Journ. Linn. Soc xxi. 201. 

 C. P. 814 (part) 2878. 



Fl. B. Ind. vi. 620. Rottb. Descr. et Ic. t. 4, f. 1 (Kyllinga panicea). 



Perennial ; rootstock small, horizontal, stoloniferous ; 

 stolons slender, rigid, bearing scattered pisiform tubers; stem 



.4-12 in., very slender, trigonous, smooth ; 1. long, very narrow, 

 Y2~ 6 m - broad, 1 -veined, filiform in small states ; umbel simple, 

 rays ^-1 in., or spikes all sessile in the top of the stem; spikes 

 :J— J by i-^- in. diam., cylindric, rhachis short, stout, densely 

 covered with the persistent hyaline lower glumesof the spikelets; 

 bracts up to 4 in. long, leaf-like; spikelets subulate, \ in. long, 

 terete, green, usually i-fld., rhachilla broadly winged above 

 the articulation ; glumes 2 above the articulation, lower 

 larger, convolute wrapped round the upper and nut, ovate- 

 oblong, subacute, terete, coriaceous, dorsally rounded, hardly 

 keeled, margins narrowly hyaline, upper glume narrower, 

 membranous, obtusely acuminate, strongly keeled ; anth. 



Jong, very slender, tip subulate ; nut \ or less shorter than 

 the glume, narrowly oblong, acute, beaked, trigonous, pale 



■ or dark brown, style shorter than the nut. 



Var. /3, Roxburgliiana, Clarke in Fl. B. Ind. 1. c. Herm. Mus. 7. 

 jFl. Zeyl. n. 38. Scirpus echinatus, L. Sp. PI. 50. 



