82 CyperaceCB. [Rhynchospora^ 



covered closely with orbicular scars; bracts 3-5, slender, 1-2 

 much the longest (up 3 in.), horizontally spreading ; glumes- 

 very numerous and tightly imbricate, T V in. long, cuneately 

 oblong, with a broad triangular obtuse or acute incurved top,. 

 1 -veined; scales oblong, strongly 5 -veined; anth. short, apicu- 

 late ; nut -£$ in. long, oblong, obtusely trigonous, stipes very 

 broad, tip with a stout conical beak, style and 3 stigmas very 

 much shorter than the nut. 



Low country; rare. Dumbala Dist. (Thwaites) ; Kurunegala. 

 Throughout India, also in Trop. Africa and America. 



12. ACTINOSCHCENUS, Benth. 

 Glabrous herbs; stems crowded on a creeping rootstock 

 with rather short matted root-fibres, erect, filiform, triquetrous,, 

 smooth, base sheathed; spikelets small, linear, sessile, stel- 

 lately crowded together, forming a solitary globose terminal 

 bracteate head ; outer bracts few, linear-subulate, concealed 

 under the head ; glumes 6-8, distichous, lowest minute, 

 broadly ovate, obtuse, hyaline, 3 or 4 succeeding short,, 

 broadly ovate with a long recurved cusp, 2 (rarely 3), upper- 

 most much longer, convolute, 3-5 -veined, tip 2-fid with an 

 erect or recurved cusp, both bisexual; hypogynous bristles o;. 

 stam. 3, anth, long, slender, subacute ; nut globosely obovoid,.. 

 triquetrous, obscurely papillose, white, style capillary, glabrous, 

 base conical, calyptriform, at length deciduous, stigmas 2 or 3,, 

 capillary. — Sp. 7 ; 1 in Fl. B. Ind. 



A. filiformis, Benth. in Hook. Ic. Plant, xiv. 33 (1881). 

 Arthrostylis filiformis, Thw. Enum. 352. C. P. 3469. 

 Fimbristylis Actinoschcenus, Clarke in Fl. B. Ind. vi. 650. 

 Fl. B. Ind. 1. c. Hook. Ic. PL t. 1346. 



Stems 1— 3- ft., sheaths very short, with sometimes a subu- 

 late blade ; heads \-\ in. ; spikelets \-\ in., green ; anth. 

 nearly as long as the upper glume ; nut -^ in.' long, margin 

 of calyptriform base of the style lacerate. 



Moist region up to 4000 ft. ; rather rare. Ambagamuwa ; Karawita ; 

 Ruanwelle ; Labugama ; Rangala Ridge, abundant. Fl. all the year. 

 Also in the Malay Peninsula, and at Hong Kong (a variety). 



13. BHTNCHOSPOBA, Vahl (Rynchospora). 

 Usually tall herbs, of various habits; stem simple, leafy 

 throughout, rarely at the base only, stout or slender ; 1. 

 narrow, often filiform ; spikelets small, ovoid, capitate, corym- 



