Cypemt.] OLII. CYPERAOEiB. 1745 



Stems rather slender, usually 1 to l^ft. high, but sometimes short, triquetrous 

 towards the top. Leaves rather narrow, much shorter than the stem, the sheaths 

 often long and loose. Spikelets usually G to 10 together in clusters or short 

 spikes in an umbel of few rays, the outer ones sometimes slender and 2 or Sin. 

 long but more frequently the umbel rather dense and sometimes almost con- 

 tracted into a compound cluster. Involucral' bracts few, 1 or 2 longer than the 

 inflorescence. Spikelets usually of a rich brown, linear, acute, compressed but 

 not very fiat, usually about 5 or 6 lines long and rather above 1 line broad, with 

 12 to 20 flowers, but varying to a much greater length, the rhachis slightly 

 flexuose and bordered by rather broad hyaline wings either persistent or at length 

 deciduous. Glumes imbricate, not very broad, obtuse or rather acute, more or 

 less distinctly several-nerved, with a prominent keel usually green. Stamens H. 

 Style 3-cleft. Nut obovoid, 8-angled, less than half the length of the glume. — R. 

 Br. Prod. 216 ; Sieb. Agrostoth. n. 112; F. v. M.; Fragm. viii. 209 ; Ba;okel. in 

 Linnsea, xxxvi. 288 ; C. hexanhiclnjnn, Rottb. Deser. et Ic. PI. 28, t. 14, f. 2 ; ( '. 

 liltarolis, E. Br. Prod. 21() ; Sitb. Agrostoth. n. 109 ; C. tuberosiis, Rottb. Clarke 

 in Fl. Brit. Ind. vi. 616. 



Hab : Biisbane Eiver, Moieton Bay, Eooihanipton and numerous other localities north and 

 south. 



A troublesome pest in tarms and giodens. 



Var. carhiatiis. Spikelets rather loiij;, the keel ot the glumes green, broad and very prominent, 

 sometimes winged. — Hoekin^hsun Bay, Da lUicIn/. •:■' 



Thf. species is abundantly spread ov«r ihe tiopical and temperate rfgions of the New and the 

 Old World, varying in many places almost as much as in Australia and sometimes difficult to 

 distinguish from C. escidentus. 



■42. C> tenuifloru.S (flowers slender), Botth. Root creeping ; stem acutely 

 triangular, smooth, leafy at the base. Leaves flat, shorter than the stem ; floral 

 leaves about 4, longer than the compound umbel of spikelets. Peduncles 

 eoryrobosely placed, about 7, at the upper part spreadingly branched. Spikelets 

 2 to 8, almost panicled, narrow-linear, compressed, containing 16 to 24 flowers. 

 Glumes ovate, blunt, navicular, with 7 to 9 nerves of chestnut color. Style very 

 long ; nut egg-shaped and somewhat triangular ; rhachis membranous at the 

 edges." — F. v. M. in letter. 



Hab.: Near Ihc Queensland border ot New South Wales, 7'^. j', M. 



43. C> lucidulus (shining), Klein ; in Link's Jahrh., iii. 86, not of C. B. 

 Clarke. Stem tuberous at the base, triangular, smooth. Leaves not much 

 shorter than the stem, flat, rough at the margin ; floral leaves 3 to 5, yery long. 

 Peduncles 6 to 13, umbel-like arranged. Spikelets 4 to 11, fasoiculate-spicate, 

 linear, compressed, 10 to 16-flowered. Bracts ovate, the upper ones short- 

 pointed, navicular, 7 ,to 9-nerved, brownish-green with pale margin. Nut ovate- 

 ellipsoid, triangular, pointed, brownish, dotted, somewhat shining, 3 to 4 times 

 shorter than the bracts ; wings of the rhachis receding. — F. v. M. in letter. 



Hab.: Near the Queensland border of New South Wales, F. v. M. 



I ha-ve followed F. v. M. in givins! thi-i specific rank, but C. B. Clarke in Fl. Brit. Ind., vi. 616 

 places it as syn. of C. tuberosum, of wh ch he also makes the Australian C. rotundiis and C. 

 tenuiAorus synonyms. 



44. C. COngestus (crowded), Vahl.; Kimth. Enum. ii. 87; Benth. Fl.Aiistr. 

 vii. 280. Stems rather stout, 1 to 21't. high, acutely 3-angled in the upper part. 

 Leaves shorter than the stem, with rather long sheaths, the lamina often 2 lines 

 broad, with long points. Spikelets numerous, in very dense short spikes f to lin. 

 diameter, in an umbel of 3 to 6 or rarely more rays, the longest 3 to_4in. long, or 

 the whole inflorescence reduced to a dense sessile compound' cluster. ■ Involucral 

 bracts several, of which 2 or 3 longer than ' the inflorescence and the outer one 

 sometimes 2 to 3 lines broad ; the bracts subtending the spikelets hyaline and 

 persistent, Spikelets linear, spreading, brown, slightly flattened, 6 lines long or 



