676 CLxxii. CTPEEACBJ5. (C. B. Clarke.) 



18. IiXSPIDOSPERDKA, Lahill. 



Glabrous, rigid, robust stoloniferous plants. Stems leafy only near 

 base. Panicle of many spikelets, often oblong, contracted. Spikelets of 

 5-10 glumes, of 2-3 axillary flowers, rarely producing more than 1 nut, 

 lowest flower being always sterile (i. e. male or pistil imperfect). £^l. glumes 

 (fiven young) similar to the lower empty glumes. Hypogynous hris'les 6, 

 short, ovate with a triangular or setaceous tip. Stamens 3. Style with 3 

 long branches ; style-base glabrous or nearly so, fused into the glabrous 

 smooth trigonous nut. — Species 36, all Australasian except the present. 



Xi. chinense, Nees Se Meyen in lAnnxa, ix. 302, and in Nov. Act. 

 Nat. Cur. xix. {Suppl. i.) 117 ; stems robust terete, leaves mostly long terete, 

 panicle oblong dense, spikelets clustered, glumes lanceolate acute sub- 

 distichous, style 3-fid, nut -f'a-yo in. obtuse. Bentli. Fl. Hongh. 398 ; Boeck. 

 in Linnsea, xxxviii. 329 (excl. L- confine). 



Malacca ! Mt. Ophir, Griffith {Kew Bistrih. 6115). — Disteib. S. China. 



Stems 2-3 ft. Leaves stem-like. Panicle 2-4 by 1 in., very dense, base scarcely 

 interrupted. Olumes 5-7, lower distichous, 1-2 highest spiral tabescent j flowers 

 3-2, lowest sterile, upper perfect nut-bearinf;. Hypoprynous bristles scarcely i 

 length of glume, easily overlooked in young flowers. — Bcnthiim says, " Flowers 3, 

 lowest fertile." Nees says, " Glumes empty except the penultimate which is male, 

 and the terminal thin one " (which Nees supposes nut-bearing). The terminal thin 

 glume is sterile, the penultimate perfect, nut-bearing. 



19. GAKNXA, J. B. & Q. Forst. 



Coarse, usually scabrous, perennials. Stem with nodes, bearing leaves 

 or leaf-like bracts throughout its length. Panicle copious, or linear- 

 oblong. Spikelets clustered, often black or dark brown, 1-2-fld., upper 

 alone nut-hearins.' Glumes imbricated on all sides, lower 3-5 (or more) 

 empty, keeled, often mucronate, hispid, upper gradually larger, uuiltered 

 in fruit; the top 3 (or 2) glumes heteromorphons, in young fl. very small 

 (usually not | length of uppermost keeled empty glume) subquadrate, 

 scarcely nerved, in fruit enlarged rigid brown or black ; lowest hetero- 

 morphous glume with 3-6 (often 4) stamens or empty, second heteromor- 

 phons glume with 3 stamens perfecting a nut, uppermost empty or 0. 

 Hypogynous bristles 0. Filaments long (often elongated in fruit holding 

 the nut); anthers crested. Style slender, glabrous; branches 3 (or 4) 

 long; .■style-base continuous with pistil, often a small black conical point 

 to the nut. Nvi bony, round or trigonous, sessile.— Species 27, from 

 Singapore to the Sandwich Isles, abounding in Australasia. 



The structure of the spicula of Gahnia has been recently described by Colenso in 

 Trans. N. Zeal. Inst, xviii. 278, and by Hillebrand in Flora Hawaii, 481. In those 

 epecies (and specimens) which have but one flower in the spikelet, that flower appears 

 terminal and the three small heteromorphous glumes (scales) appear as a perianth 

 of 3 imbrirated segments. But the cases where the above three glumes contain two 

 flowers (both of which may be pistiiliferous though only the upper nut-bearing), 

 ucgative this explanation. 



<S. javanica, MorUzi Verz. Zoll. Pfl. 98 ; tall, leaves long narrow 

 very scabrous, panicte oblong-linear dense, spikelets 2-1-fld. black, style 

 3-fid, nut linear-oblong shining brown black-tipped. Boeck. in Linniea, 

 xs xviii. 339. Phakellanthus multiflorus, Zoll. Syst. Verz. Ind. Archip. ii. 



