Eleocharis7\ CyperacetZ . J I 



In water, low country; rather common. Kalutara (Macrae); Trin- 

 comalie (Glenie). Fl. March. 



Also in India, Burma, and (?) Mauritius. 



6. E. Chaetaria,* Roem. et Schulies Syst. ii. 154 (1817). 

 Chiztocyperiis Limnocharis, Nees in Wight, Contrib. 96. C. setaceus, 



Nees; Thw. Enum. 351. Scirpus Chcstaria, Thw. Enum. 435. C. P. 247. 

 Fl. B. Ind. vi. 629. 



Annual, densely tufted; stem 1-6 in., filiform or capillary, 

 straight or curved ; 1. o, sheaths short, membranous; spikelet 

 xo—i in., oval, obtuse, terete or compressed, few-fid., lowest 

 glume ^ in., more than half as long as the spikelet, with three 

 green veins, rhachilla short, internodes narrowly winged ; 

 glumes 6-8, subdistichous, loosely imbricate, T V in. long, 

 oblong, obtuse, membranous, easily detached, faintly 1 -veined; 

 bristles as long as the nut or shorter, stout, retrorsely scabrid, 

 sometimes o; anth. short, linear, obtuse; nut obovoid, ^V in. 

 long, trigonous, cancellate, angles smooth, thickened, pro- 

 duced into short prominences or shoulders below the convex 

 top, pale, opaque, style rather short, base conical, nut con- 

 tracted at its insertion, stigmas 3, very long. 



Moist region, extending rarely into the montane zone ; very common. 

 Fl. all the year(?). 

 Tropics generally. 



7. E. atropurpurea, Kunth, Enum. PL ii. 151 (1837). 

 Heleocharis vutlticaitlis, Trim. Syst. Cat. Ceyl. 101 (non Sm.). 

 Fl. B. Ind. vi. 627. 



Annual, densely tufted; stems 2-12 in., very slender, 

 sometimes filiform, straight or curved; 1. o, sheath very short; 

 spikelet \-\ in., ovoid, obtuse or acute, much broader than 

 the stem, lowest glumes bracteiform, sometimes half as long 

 as the spikelet, green, with a broad hyaline border, rhachilla 

 slender, with oblong pits; glumes not very numerous, easily 

 detached, loosely imbricate, T V in. long, membranous, linear- 

 oblong, obtuse, veins o, red or purplish-brown, with a green 

 centre; bristles slender, scabrid, longer than the nut, white; 

 anth. small, apiculate; nut 3V in. long, broadly ovate or 

 obovoid, contracted at the base and apex, trigonous or 

 biconvex, pale, smooth, style short, base conic or subglobose, 

 truncate, much narrower than the nut, to which it is attached 

 by a mere point, stigmas 2 or 3. 



Intermediate region ; rare. Kurunegala (?) (Thwaites) ; Ella, Uva. 



Tropics generally, also in Europe. 



Thwaites gave no C. P. number to his specimens, which he referred 



* A genus of grasses, a synonym of Aristida, to some species of which 

 this plant bears a resemblance. 



