688 CLXxii. CYPERACE^. (C. B. Clarke.') [^Scleria. 



smooth or obsonrely reticulate, cli-<e-margin sub^ntire. Nees in Wight 

 Contrib. p. 118. S. oeylanica, Kunth Eimm. ii. 358; T/iw. Enum. 436. S. 

 Thwaiteaiana, Boeck. in lAnnsea, xxxviii. 454. S. lateriflora, Boeck. I. c. 

 455 ; Kurz in Journ. As. 8oc. xLv., pt. 2, 159. S. hebeoarpa, Thw. JEnum. 

 p. 354, 435. 



Tenasseeim, Selfer. NicoBAES, Kun. Ceylon, Tkwaiies. — Distbib. Borneo. 



Stems 1 ft., connected at base on a very short slender lignescent rhizome 

 Leaves with scattered slender needle-white hairs or glabrescent, tip lanceolate sub- 

 obtuse (not setaceous-caudate). Spikelets small, as of iS. tesseVata. Nut scarcely 

 -Jj iu. in diam., dried young reticulate, mature osseous smooth or nearly so. Disc- 

 margin coloured, glandulose, not (or obscurely) 3-lobed. — S. laxa, R. Br., hardly 

 differs but by its strictly fibrous roots. 



10. S. flaccida, 0. B. Clarke [non Steud.) ; slender, softly hairy all 

 over, roots fibrous, panicles axillary small distant, fem. glumes hairy, style 

 3-fid, nut small ovoid smooth white, disc-margin snbentire coloured 

 glandular. 



Assam (in Seebsagur), C. JB. Clarice. Pe&u, Kurz. 



Stems flaccid, 1-2 ft. Leaves i in. broad, lanceolate, subobtnse at tip. Panicles 

 axillary, i in. 'long. Spikelets small, all unisexual, fem. ^ In. long usually con- 

 taining the depauperated sterile apex of the spikelet as a lateral compressed rudiment 

 (of two glumes) about f length of nut. Nat broad, obtuse not apiculate. — Might 

 btand as a var. of the Australian <S. rugosa, Br., which however has a reticulated 

 subtuberculated nut. 



*** Nut smooth, white, fluted longitudinally. 



11. S. caricina, Benth. Fl. Austral, vii. 426 ; annual, very slender, 

 nearly smooth and glabrous, panicle of several remote small axillai-y 

 clusters, fem. glume sub-3-toothed, style 3-fid, nut very small, disc-margin 

 obsolete. S. axillaris. Moon Oat. PI. Gei/lon, p. 62. Diplaorum oarioinum, 

 Br. Prodr. 241 ; Endl. Iconogr. t. 25 ; Thw. Enum. 354 ; Boeck. in Linniea, 

 xxxviii. 434. D. trideutatum, Brongn. in Dwperr. Yoy. t. 26. D. zeylani- 

 cum, Nees in Wight Oontrih. p. 119. Olyra malaccensis, Kcenig in Serb. 

 Eeyne.—Wall. Cat. 3640. 



India, frequent ; from the Sikkim Teeai and Assam to Cbylon and Tenas- 

 seeim. — DiSTEiB. Malaya, China, Australia. 



Roots fibrous, slender. Stems 1-12 in., tufted. Zeaces 2 by J— J- in., lanceolate, 

 tip subobtnse ; sheaths trigonous, not winged. Primary tracts (floral leaves) alto- 

 gether leaf-like tuft usually of very small subsessile clusters just exserted from their 

 sheaths, but in evolute examples, lower clusters are sometimes paniculate with 

 branches 1 in. long. Spikelets all unisexual, fem. -j^ in. long with 1 or 2 smaller 

 male spikelets closely applied to its base. Fem. spikelet : lowest glume ovate boat- 

 shaped obtuse i 2nd glume (sterile) rather longer, boat-shaped, apex deeply, emar- 

 ginate (from the centre of the emargination the midrib is produced as sr linear- 

 triangular point), smooth, 2-ribbed on each side ; 3rd glume similar to 2nd and 

 subopposite to it, containing fem. flower ; no rudiment of an upper glume. Nut 

 scarcely -^ in. in diam. ; disc small obpyramidal, margin most minute, white, 

 truncate. — See Goebel in Ann. Jard. Buit. vii. 132, 1. 15, figs. 21-29, who considers 

 the female flower truly terminal, and therefore places the species among the 

 American Gryptangieeo. 



**** Nut covered hy conical tubercles hairy at their tips.. 



12. S. Neesii, Kunth Enum. ii. 368; small, hairy, rhizome hardly 

 any, panicle of 2-1 distant axillary clusters (in Ceylon one terminal head). 



