CLI. RESTIACEiE. 1721 



the flowers when in spikelets sessile or very shortly pedicellate without bracteoles 

 and concealed under the glume, or when not in close spikelets having usually but 

 not always a pair of bracteoles at their base. 



The Order is almost limited to extratropioal South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. 

 BestiaeetB are closely allied in habit and inflorescence to Cyperacece and in the perianth to . 

 Juncacm but readily distinguished from both by the pendulous ovules and seeds. The great 

 dissimilarity in habit and inflorescence between the males and females of some species often 

 renders even their generic determination very diflieult or uncertain from dried specimens, 

 where only one sex is present or the sexes are mismatched. In some cases indeed the males of 

 species belonging to different genera are more like each other than these of congeneric species. 

 — Benth. 



Ovary 2 or 3-celled. Styles or style branches 2 or 3. 

 Anthers 1-oelled. 



Plowers in narrow or spike-like panicles, the glumes scarcely imbricate 



and usually 2 bracteoles under each flower 1. Lepykoma. 



Tlowers in spikelets with imbricate glumes, the spikelets several-flowered 



in both sexes or the females 1-flowered 2. Kestio. 



Ovary 1-celled with a single ovule. Styles or style branches 3. 

 Pemale spikelets several-flowered as well as the males. Pericarp usually 



opening laterally 3. Lepiocaepcs. 



J?emale spikelets 1-flowered. Nut indehiscent 4. Hypol.'ena. 



1. LEPYRODIA, R. Br. 



(Referring to the scaly inflorescence.) 



Flowers dioecious, monoecious, or rarely hermaphrodite, in narrow or spike- 

 like panicles, the glumes not closely imbricate and shorter than the perianth. 

 Perianth-segments 6, glume-like or thin and almost hyaline. Male flower: 

 Stamens 3, filaments free; anthers 1-celled. Female flower; Staminodia 

 usually 3, filiform clavate or with an abortive anther. Ovary 8-angled, B-celled ; 

 styles 3, either distinct or more or less connate at the base, linear, stigmatie from 

 the middle or almost from the base. Capsule 3-lobed or 8-angled, opening at 

 the angles. — Stems simple or branched, leafless except the sheathing scales. 

 Male and female inflorescences not very different. Bracteoles under each flower 

 within the glume usually 2, deficient however in two species. 



The genus is limited to extratropical Australia. 



Outer perianth-segments as long as or longer than the inner. 



Tall plant. Sheathing scales loose. Floral bracts with long points . . 1. L. scariosa. 

 Outer perianth-segments at least in the males shorter than the inner. 

 Sheathing scales closely appressed. 

 Stems loosely branched. Flowers in almost sessile distant clusters along 



the branches 2. L. interrupta. 



1. Ii. scariosa (scarious), E. Br. Prod. 218 ; Benth. Fl. Austr. vii. 215. 

 Rhizome creeping. Stems erect, terete, glabrous, 1 to 2ft. high. Sheathing 

 scales brown, loose, often above lin. long and in some luxuriant specimens 2in., 

 the upper ones with short points. Inflorescence a narrow pale-brown thyrsoid 

 panicle, with short unequal erect branches, the lower ones often distant, the 

 others more crowded. Bracts under the lower branches rigid with long points, 

 ■under the upper branches smaller, broader and more scarious. Flowers sessile or 

 ■shortly pedicellate within scarious glumes shorter than the perianth and 2 

 hyaline bracteoles at the base of the pedicel, sometimes very short, sometimes 

 almost as long as the glume. Perianth-segments in both sexes about 2 lines 

 long, lanceolate, acute, pale brown. Male flowers with a small rudiment of the 

 ■ovary, females with slender staminodia. — F. v. M. Fragra. viii. 72; L. 

 hermaphrodita, Nees. in Sieb. PI. Exs, n. 51, not of R. Br. 



Hab.: Stradbroke Island and towards Wallangarra. 



2. Zi. interrupta (interrupted), F. v. 21. Fragm, viii. 74 ; Benth, Fl, Atcstr. 

 vii. 217. Stems very slender, undivided or branched, often above 1ft. long. 

 Sheathing scales when below the branches closely appressed, rigid, with a short 



