Cyperus^ Cyperacece. 25 



rays 10-30, superposed, slender, spreading, terminated by 

 6-8 short spreading secondary rays, each bearing 3-5 

 spreading spikelets ; bracts 8-18 in., very unequal, longest up 

 to 2 ft. by § in. broad, margins and keel scabrid ; spikelets 

 3~i by To~i m -> linear-lanceolate, acute, rather tumid, few or 

 many-fld., chestnut-brown, rhachilla scarcely winged, persistent; 

 glumes closely imbricate, broadly ovate, cymbiform, tip 

 rounded strongly cuspidate, or lower muticous, dorsally 

 rounded except towards the tip, faintly 3-veined, sides veinless ; 

 stam. 3, fil. broadly linear, anth. small, linear, tipped with 

 short hairs ; nut § the length of the glume or longer, ellipsoid, 

 beaked, unequally trigonous, base and sides broadly corky, 

 straw-col'd.; style shorter than the nut, flattened, papillose, 

 stigmas 3, short, revolute. 



Wet places in the low country; rare. Batticaloa; Kurunegala; 

 Colombo Lake. Fl. March, Sept. 



Also in Bengal, Burma, Malaya, Australia. 



Erroneously described in Fl. B. Ind. as having long stolons, and as 

 having anth. crested with a linear lanceolate red mucro. The style is 

 that of a Fimbristylis. 



16. C. difformis, Linn. Cent. Plant, ii. 6 (1755). 

 Trim. Syst. Cat. 344. C. P. 3042. 



Fl. B. Ind. vi. 599. Rottb. Descr. et Ic. t. 9, f. 2. 



A glabrous annual ; stems 4-20 in., tufted, weak, tri- 

 quetrous towards the top ; 1. few, as long as the stem or shorter, 

 \-\ in broad, sometimes all reduced to sheaths with a short 

 limb, linear, acuminate, flaccid, veins faint, sheath of upper 

 long ; umbel simple, of 4-6 slender rays \-\ in. long, termin- 

 ated by globose heads of minute spikes, rarely rays short 

 and heads all clustered, heads \-\ in. diam., ebracteolate, green, 

 sometimes lobed ; bracts 3, 2-10 in., lowest often suberect, 

 flaccid ; spikelets minute, most densely crowded, |— -£$ in. long, 

 rather turgid, 10-30 fid., rhachilla not winged ; glumes closely 

 imbricate, almost orbicular, obtuse or apiculate, dorsally 

 rounded and 3-veined, sides broadly membranous ; stam. 1-2, 

 anth. small, oblong, muticous ; nut very minute, nearly as 

 long as the glume, suborbicular, apiculate, obtusely trigonous, 

 pale or yellowish-brown, style much shorter than the nut, 

 stigmas 3, short, capillary. 



Wet places ; common. Fl. March. 



Throughout the warm regions of the Old World. 



17. C. castaneus, Willd. Sp. PL i. 278 (1797). 

 Thw. Enum. 343. C. P. 803 (part). 



Fl. B. Ind. vi. 598 (excl. syn. C. squarrosus). 



A very slender, tufted annual ; stems 1-6 in., almost 

 filiform ; 1. as long as the stem or shorter, from almost filiform 



