Kyllinga?[ Cyperacecz. 43 



Two specimens in the British Museum, without collector's name, 

 dated 1820, are recognised by Mr. Clarke as the only Ceylon specimens 

 known of this common Indian plant. It is so closely allied to M. 

 cyperinus, that it is difficult to distinguish it by description. In its 

 ordinary state it is a less robust plant, with more cylindric spikes of 

 widely spreading or refiexed often almost golden-yellow spikelets. 



7. IK. tenuifolius, Schrad. in Mart. Fl. Bras. ii. 1, 46 (1842). 

 Cyperus umbellatus, Benth. ; Thw. Enum. 345 (part). C. umbellatus, 

 laxata, Clarke; Trim. Syst. Cat. Ceyl. 101. C. P. 814 (part), 817. 

 Fl. B. Ind. i. 622. 



Stem 12-14 in -> filiform, ascending from a creeping 

 stoloniferous rootstock; 1. as long as the stem or longer, 

 very narrow, ^ in. broad or less, flat, 1 -veined; umbel of 3-5, 

 filiform rays \-2 in. long, bearing very short ebracteolate 

 spikes of 5-10 subulate spikelets, or spikes sessile on the top 

 of the stem, bracts 3, leaf-like, flexuous, up to 5 in., long; 

 rhachis of spikes \ in. or less, slender; spikelets suberect, 

 \-\ in. long, lanceolate, acuminate, terete, 3-4-fld., green and 

 purplish, rhachilla winged; glumes rather thin, broadly ovate- 

 oblong, obtuse, or tip rounded, dorsally rounded, 3-veined, 

 hardly keeled, streaked with red, margins hyaline; anth. 

 linear; nut 3— | shorter than the glume, dimidiate-oval, tri- 

 gonous, acute at both ends, gibbous dorsally and slightly 

 curved, dark brown, style shorter than the nut, stigmas long. 



Low country ; probably common. Peradeniya ; Maturata. Fl. Nov. 

 Also in Peninsular India, Behar, and Malacca. 



M. squarrosus, Clarke, is given in Fl. B. Ind. vi. 623, as a Ceylon 

 plant, but erroneously ; a specimen of Cyperus cuspidatus, which it 

 strongly resembles, was taken for it. It is a native of Bengal and Burma. 



3. KYLLINGA, Rottb. 



Perennial herbs, tufted or with a creeping rootstock ; stem 

 trigonous ; 1. narrow, chiefly radical ; infl. of solitary or ternate, 

 involucrate, short, sessile, oblong or globose spikes densely 

 covered with minute spikelets, rhachis short, naked after 

 the fall of the spikelets, or squarrosely covered with the 

 more or less persistent lowest glumes ; bracts leaf-like ; 

 spikelets green, strongly laterally compressed, 1-2-fld., rhachilla 

 hardly any, disarticulating above the two lowest glumes; 

 glumes 4, distichous: I. hyaline, lanceolate; II. orbicular or 

 lanceolate, much shorter than III. variously veined ; III. 

 and IV. much the largest, often green and speckled with 

 brown, subequal, or upper longest, unequal-sided, keeled, keel 

 rarely winged, apiculate or strongly cuspidate; stam. 1-3, 



