Fimbristylisl\ CyperacecZ. 55 



obtusely apiculate ; nut very variable, jo^aV m., minutely 

 stipitate, obovate or obcordate, compressed, biconvex, surface 

 slightly uneven, pale, at length nearly black, style shorter or 

 as long as the nut, quite naked, base bulbous or not, stigmas 

 2, longer than the style. 



Sands of the seashore, common round the coast. Fl. probably all 

 the year. 



India, Malaya, &c. 



The spikelets are very frequently densely approximated, and form a 

 Tounded head ; it is then var. congesta, Trim. Syst. Cat. Ceyl. 102, but is 

 (Connected with the type by intermediates. — Tiime?t. 



13. F. compressa, Boeck. in Linncza, xxxviii. 558 (1874). 

 Fl. B. Ind. vi. 639. 



Densely tufted, root-fibres slender ; stems 12-18 in., very 

 slender, trigonous, grooved ; 1. few, much shorter than the 

 stem, almost filiform, obtuse, sheaths 2-3 in., tips subulate, 

 margins scarious ; umbel compound, of few spreading slender 

 rays I in. long, or shorter, carrying few scattered small uni- 

 formly dark brown pubescent spikelets ; bracts filiform, one 

 about as long as the umbel; spikelets i— 1- in., ovoid, subacute, 

 terete, pubescent, lowest two glumes long-cuspidate, empty, 

 rhachilla slender, deeply closely pitted, not winged ; glumes 

 closely imbricate, yu i n - \° n §> broadly ovate, cymbiform, acute, 

 apiculate, I -veined, uniformly covered with dark brown points 

 and thickly puberulous, keel slender; stam. 1, anth. rather 

 short, obtuse ; nut ^V in., obcordate, strongly compressed, 

 biconvex, quite smooth, straw-col'd., at length brown, style 

 not longer than the nut, slender, glabrous, base swollen, 

 stigmas 2, short. 



Periakulam, near Trincomalie (W. Ferguson, 1885). Fl. Dec. 



Madras, Burma. 



The only Ceylon species with all the glumes pubescent. 



14. P. quinquangularis, Kunth, Enum. ii. 229 (1837). 

 Thw. Enum. 349. C. P. 838. 



Fl. B. Ind. vi. 644. 



Annual, tufted, glabrous, leafy, root-fibres slender ; stem 

 \- 2 ft., slender, obtusely angled, deeply grooved ; 1. longer or 

 shorter than the stem, very slender, T \j- in. broad or less, linear, 

 finely acuminate, flaccid, margins and keel scaberulous, sheaths 

 long, subdistichous, green, coriaceous; umbel decompound, 

 rays very many, suberect, filiform, much branched, bearing 

 innumerable very small pedicelled spikelets, whole infl. ap- 

 pearing like one oblong panicle; bracts filiform, usually shorter 

 than the umbel ; spikelets -yq-\ in., ovoid, terete, pale brown, 

 rhachilla winged ; glumes rather laxly imbricate, T V in. long, 

 orbicular-ovate, cymbiform, membranous, mucronate by the 



