6 6 Cyperacece. [Bulbostylis. 



6. BULBOSTYLIS, Kiinth. 

 Annual; stems very slender, leafy at the base only; 1. very 

 narrow, filiform or capillary; spikelets small, crowded in a 

 terminal head, or umbellate; bracts short; glumes few or 

 many, imbricate all round the rhachilla, 1-2 lowest and often 

 the uppermost empty; hypogynous bristles o; stam. 1-3, 

 anth. linear, obtuse or apiculate; nut obovoid, obtuse, tri- 

 gonous, smooth, crowned with the style-base; style slender, 

 glabrous, stigmas 3. — Sp. about 70 ; 4 in. FL B. Ind. 



Mr. Clarke observes that this genus, which has been referred to 

 Fimbristylis by Bentham and to Scirpus by Boeckeler, is nearer to 

 Eleocha,7'is, and may be recognised by its very slender leaves, needle-like 

 hairs, and the peculiar button -like ultimately deciduous style- base 

 crowning the nut. 



Glumes cuspidate or mucronate. 



L.-sheaths hairy, mouth sparingly bearded . . 1. B. puberula. 



L.-sheaths glabrous, mouth copiously bearded . 2. B. barbata. 



Glumes muticous, tip rounded, membranous . . 3. B. capillaris. 



1. B. puberula, Kunth, Enum. ii. 213 (see 205) (1837). 

 Isolspis gracilis, Nees ; Thw. Enum. 350. Fimbristylis gracilis, Trim. 



Syst. Cat. Ceyl. 102. C. P. 834. 

 Fl. B. Ind. vi. 653. 



A densely tufted annual, nearly glabrous or pubescent, 

 root-fibres capillary; stem 4 to 20 in., filiform, strongly ribbed, 

 glabrous or sparsely pilose with spreading hairs; 1. much 

 shorter than the stem, erect, capillary, acuminate, glabrous or 

 puberulous, margins scaberulous, sheaths membranous, hairy, 

 mouth scantily bearded with flexuous hairs; spikelets \-\ in., 

 red-brown, densely fascicled in terminal or pseudo-terminal 

 heads, or contracted into small simple or compound umbels 

 with very short rays; heads ~-f in. diam., sometimes reduced 

 to 2 or 3 spikelets; bracts setiform; rhachilla slender; glumes 

 Ya in., laxly imbricated, ovate, cymbiform, keel broad, green, 

 often scaberulous, ending in a recurved cusp, sides membra- 

 nous, puberulous ; stam. 1, anth. linear, half as long as the 

 glume; nut broadly obovoid, 3V in. long, pale, trigonous, angles 

 prominent, sides transversely wrinkled, crowned with the 

 minute base of the slender style, stigmas 3. 



Low country; common. Fl. Dec, Jan. 



Also in India, Malaya, and Trop. Africa. 



2. B. barbata, Kutith, Enum. ii. 208 (1837). Uru-hiri, ^S - . 



Herm. Mus. 45. Burm. Thes. 108. Fl. Zeyl. n. 39. Scirpus capil- 

 laris, L., Sp. PI. 49 (part) ; Moon, Cat. 6. Isolepis barbata, Br. ; Wight, 

 Contrib. 109 ; Thw. Enum. 350. Fimbristylis barbata, Benth. ; Trim. 

 Syst. Cat. 102. C. P. 829. 



Fl. B. Ind. vi. 651. Burm. Thes. t. 47, f. 2. 



