Rhynchospora.] CyperdCeCB. 83 



bose, subumbellate, or panicled, with 1 or 2 bisexual fl. ; 

 bracts various ; glumes imbricate all round the rhachilla, 

 membranous or coriaceous, 1 -veined, 3 or 4 lower shorter 

 empty, the following 1 or 2 fruiting, uppermost empty ; hypo- 

 gynous bristles o, or 6, rarely fewer, scabrid, the teeth 

 pointing upwards ; stam. 1-3, anth. linear ; style slender, 

 glabrous, base conical, stigmas 2 ; nut ovoid or subglobose, 

 turgidly biconvex, smooth or transversely waved, crowned by 

 the conical greatly enlarged often very long and stout per- 

 sistent base of the style, stigmas 2-3. — Sp. 188 ; 14 in Fl. 

 B. Ind. 



Stem leafy towards the base only . . . . 1. R. Wallichiana. 

 Stem leafy throughout. 

 Style short, stigmas short. 



Spikelets very many, clustered . . . 2. R. AUREA. 

 Spikelets scattered, ternate . . . . 3. R. triflora. 

 Style long, stigmas long. 



Spikelets few, distant, solitary . . . 4. R. gracillima. 

 Spikelets clustered 5. R. GLAUCA. 



1. R. Wallichiana, Kunth, Enum. ii. 289 (1837). 

 Thw. Enum. 352. C. P. 2476. 



Fl. B. Ind. vi. 668. 



Stems 1-2 ft, tufted, slender, striate, leafy at the base 

 only, root-fibres stout, soft; 1. shorter than the stem, narrowly 

 linear, up to \ in. broad, flat or complicate, narrowed from 

 the sheath to the tip, acute, serrulate, margins nearly 

 smooth, sheath continuous with the blade, lower open, upper 

 closed to near the top ; spikelets about \ in. long, sessile, 

 densely clustered in a terminal, globose, chestnut-brown, 

 shining head |-f in- diam., mixed with minute ovate hyaline 

 scales; bracts very narrow, spreading, bases ciliate, broad, 

 outer 2-3 in. long; glumes glabrous, lower 3-4 short, ovate- 

 lanceolate, empty, upper flowering, linear-lanceolate, acumi- 

 nate ; ,hypogynous bristles, if present, as long as the nut or 

 shorter, scabrid with suberect teeth; stam. 2-3, anth. linear- 

 oblong, tip acute; nut % ~-bs m - l° n g» obovoid, turgidly bi- 

 convex, with a broad, conical, puberulous, terminal button, 

 nearly black, hispidulous towards the top, style very slender, 

 stigmas 2, very long. 



Open places in the moist region up to 4000 ft. ; rather common. 

 Fl. all the year, 



Tropics of Old World generally. 



2. R. aurea, Vahl, Enum. ii. 229 (1806). 

 Moon, Cat. 6. Thw. Enum. 252. C. P. 199. 



Fl. B. Ind. vi. 670. Rottb. 1. c. t. 21, f. 1 (JSchoznus surinamensis). 



