1728 CLII. CYPEEACE^. 



Tbibe III. Rhynchosporeae.— S^jiftcZets capitate spicate or paniculate, rarely solitary or 

 umbellate, with 1 rarely 2 {in Scha3nus 2 to 6) hermaphrodite fertile flowers, and sometimes 1 (M' 

 more male or sterile flowers above or below. Empty glumes at the base often more than 2. 

 Hypogynous bristles or scales when present filiform or fiat. 



(Flowers sometimes unisexual by abortion in 24 Gaustis.) 

 Spikelets small, in a dense ovoid spike or held, with 1 flower and 4 glumes, 

 the inner one fleshy enveloping the nut. No hypogynous bristles. Low 



branching leafy plant 14. Rejiibea. 



Spikelets in a small terminal head. Stamens or staminodia 6. No 



hypogynous bristles or scales 15. AbthroStyles. 



Glumes imbricate all round. Style-branches 2. Nut crowned by the 

 thickened persistent base of the style. 

 Empty glumes several. Hypogynous bristles 6 or irregularly fewer, 



slender or small 16. Ehynohospoba. 



Hypogynous bristles or scales 3. Spikelets in a terminal head 17. Mesomeljena. 



Glumes distinctly distichous. Style-branches 3, rarely 4. 

 Flowers 2 to 6, all or the lower ones fertile. Ehachis between the flowers 



elongated curved or flexuose 18. Sohosnus. 



Flowers 1 or 2, both fertile or the lowest male or sterile. No hypogynous 



bristles. Spikelets in a narrow panicle or axillary 19. Elynanihds. 



■Glumes imbricate all round, or when few obscurely distichous.- Style- 

 branches 3, rarely 4 or 8. 



Hypogynous bristles small and not thickened under the nut 20. Tricostulabia. 



Hypogynous scales often at first minute, thickened and acuminate under 



the nut 21, Lepidospebma. 



No hypogynous bristles or scales. 



Spike paniculate, when 2-flowered the lowest fertile, its glumes as long 



as the outer empty ones. StamensS 22. Clamdm. 



Spikelets paniculate, when 2-flowere'd the lowest sterile ; flowering 

 glumes obtuse and shorter than the outer empty ones. Stamens 



3 to 6 *. 23. Gahnia. 



Spikelets solitary or clustered in an irregularly branched inflorescence, 

 when 2-flowered the lowest sterile, and often unisexual. Stamens 

 3 to 6. Nut crowned by the ovoid or oblong base of the style ... 24. Causiis, 



Tbibe IV. Sclerieae. — Flowers strictly unisexual, in unisexual or androgynous spilcelets, 

 -JTo utricle enclosing the females. Ovary and nut seated on a disk. 



Single Australian genus 25. Scleeia. 



Tbibe V. Cariceae. — Flowers strictly unisexual, in unisexual or androgynous spikelets, the 

 females enclosed in an utricle or perigynium. 



:Spikelets solitary, spioate or paniculate ; unisexual or androgynous. 



Bristle within the utricle not exserted nor hooked and often deficient . . 26. Cakex. 



1. CYPERUS, Linu. 

 (The derivation doubtful.) 

 (Mariscus, Vahl. ; Papyrus, Willd.'; Diclidium, Schrad.) 

 Spikelets with several often numerous flowers rarely reduced to 3, 2, or 1, all 

 hermaphrodite or the terminal flower rarely male. Glumes distichous, concave 

 or navicular and keeled, all nearly equal and flowering except the lowest 2 or 1 

 usually smaller and empty. No hypogynous scales or bristles. Stamens 3 or 

 fewer. Style continuous with the ovary, not thickened at the base, deciduous, 

 deeply or shortly divided into 2 or 3 filiform stigmatic branches or rarely almost 

 or quite entire. Nut sessile, without any hypogynous disk, flattened biconvex or 

 triquetrous, smooth or (frequently in the same species) minutely granular. — 

 Perennials either tufted or forming horizontal or creeping rhizomes, rarely 

 ■ annuals. Stems simple under the inflorescence. Leaves few at the base of the 

 stem or rarely covering it half way up with their sheaths, long or short or some- 

 times all reduced to the sheaths, of which the lower ones are scale-like covering 

 the rhizome or leaving annular scars when they fall away. Spikelets in clusters 

 heads or spikes, very rarely solitary at the ends of the rays or branches of a simple 

 or compound irregular umbel, sometimes occupying the whole of the secondary 

 rays, the central clusters or spikes always sessile in the centre of the umbel, the 



