42 CyperaceCB. [Marzsaes. 



Stem up to 2 ft, rays of umbel up to 2 in., bracts 5-7, 

 rhachilla terminated by a rudimentary glume. 



Grassy places, at low elevations ; both varieties very common. Fl. all 

 the year. 



Also in Peninsular India and Mauritius. 

 Hermann gives the S. name for this ' Umkiri.' 



5. Ttl. cyperimis, Vahl, Enum. ii. 377 (1806). 



Cyperus umbellatus, Thw. Enum. 345 (part). C. biglumis, Clarke in 

 Journ. Linn. Soc. xxi. 199. Trim. Syst. Cat. Ceyl. 101. C. P. 816. 

 Fl. B. Ind. vi. 621. 



Perennial ; rootstock stout, stolons o, root-fibres wiry ; 

 stem 1-2 ft., rather stout, trigonous, smooth ; 1. as long as the 

 stem or shorter, up to \ in. broad, keel and margins scabrid ; 

 umbel of 5-10 very short, stout, trigonous rays, bearing many 

 cylindric spikes of densely crowded spreading subulate spike- 

 lets, or spikes sessile in a compact head terminating the stem; 

 rhachis of spike densely clothed with the hyaline lower glumes 

 of the spikelets ; bracts many, leaf-like, longest 6-8 in. \ 

 spikelets §-|- in., terete, rigid, usually 2-3-fld., rhachilla broadly 

 winged ; glumes 2-3 above the articulation, oblong-ovate, 

 obtuse, dorsally rounded, coriaceous, obscurely veined, hardly 

 keeled, green streaked and speckled with brown, margins very 

 narrowly hyaline, uppermost subulate, empty ; anth. linear, 

 very narrow, tip subulate; nut stipitate, |-§ as long as the 

 glume, linear-oblong or oblanceolate, trigonous, pale, style 

 shorter then the nut, stigmas short. 



Low country ; very common. Fl. all the year. 

 Throughout the warmer regions of Asia and Polynesia. 

 Indian forms with more compound umbels may be expected to be 

 found in Ceylon. 



6. IKE. Sieberianus, Nees in Linncea, ix. 286 (1834). 

 Fl. B. Ind. vi. 622. 



Perennial ; rootstock short, stolons o ; stem 1-2 ft, trigonous, 

 smooth ; 1. as long as the stem or shorter, up to \ in. broad, 

 flat, keel and margins smooth, umbel 1-5 in. diam.; spikes 5-12, 

 sessile or peduncled, usually 1-1J in. long, cylindric, of many 

 horizontally spreading and deflexed slender spikelets, ped. 

 up to 4 in. long ; bracts many, leaf-like, longest up to 6 in. ; 

 spikelets \-\ in., slender, linear or linear-lanceolate, 1-3 -fid., 

 usually shining; rhachilla broadly winged; glumes as in 

 M. cyperinus ; nut oblong or linear-oblong, f-f as long as 

 the glume, trigonous, pale brown, style shorter than the nut, 

 stigmas short. 



Trincomalie and Kandy (Herb. Mus. Brit.). 

 Warm regions of the Old World. 



