54 CyperaCCCS. [Fimbristylis t 



unequal, up to 2 in. long ; bracts filiform, long or short' ; 

 spikelets scattered or clustered, \- § in. long, ovoid, acute, 

 terete, lowest glumes rarely bractlike, usually small, deciduous, 

 rhachilla stout, scarred and pitted ; glumes \-% in., loosely 

 imbricate, broadly ovate, cymbiform, acute, chartaceous, keel 

 obtuse, 3-veined, green, midrib reaching the tip, sides chestnut 

 brown; stam. 1-3, anth. long, tip conical ; nut ^ in., broadly 

 or orbicularly obovoid, stipitate, many-ribbed, interstices 

 punctate, pale straw-col'd. or dark brown, style twice as long 

 as the nut, very broad, villous with long spreading or reflexed 

 hairs down to and on the dilated truncate base, stigmas 2. 



Var. /3, major, Thw. Enum. 433. F. rigidula, Thw. 1. c. 348, 433 

 (non Nees). C. P. 3232. 



Stem taller, leaves long, very narrow, spikelets larger up 

 to I in., ovoid-oblong. 



Var. 7, ovalis, F. ovalis, Nees in Wight, Contrib. 100. Thw. 1. c. 

 348. C. P. 3737. 



Annual or perennial, leaves shorter, more flaccid, hairy, 

 spikelets very variable, \- nearly \ in., glumes cuspidate, nut 

 larger up to ^V m - long- 

 In all parts of the island; very common. Fl. most of the year. 

 All warm countries. 



A very variable plant. The varieties are quite inconstant. ' Hermann's 

 S. dichotomies is certainly this.' — Trimen. 



12. F. spatliacea, Roth, Nov. Sp. PI. 24 (182 1). 

 F. Wightiana, Nees; Thw. Enum. 349. C. P. 3759. 

 Fl. B.'lnd. vi. 640. 



Rootstock very short, or elongate, stout, woody, root-fibres 

 both stout and slender, black; stem densely leafy below, \-i\ ft, 

 stout, obtusely trigonous, grooved ; 1. very many, densely 

 crowded on the rootstock, much shorter than the stem, 

 spreading and recurved, narrowly linear, obtuse or acute, up 

 to 2V in. broad, rigidly coriaceous, margins recurved, scaberu- 

 lous, sheaths short, imbricating, open, coriaceous; umbel 

 simple or compound, open or with the spikelets more or less 

 crowded, sometimes into a globose head, but always pedi- 

 celled; bracts very short, rigid, erect, base dilated, coriaceous; 

 spikelets ^o~j m -» ovoid, obtuse, terete, pale brown, lowest 

 glumes usually lanceolate, bracteiform, subpersistent, rhachilla 

 stout, squarrose, pits large; glumes rather laxly imbricate, 

 Jg- in. long, broadly ovate or orbicular, cymbiform, tip mem- 

 branous, obtuse or rounded, all hyaline except for a triangular 

 red-brown area extending from some distance below the tip 

 to the base, keel indistinctly 3-5-veined ; stam. 2-3, anth. 



