CLII. CYPERAOE^. 177T 



11. EXOCARYA, Benth. 



(Nut exerted.) 



Spikelets small, umbellate-paniculate, with 1 or 2 hermaphrodite flowers and 

 2 or 3 male ones below them. Glumes imbricate all round, several lower ones 

 empty. Flowers flattened. Hypogynous scales 4, 2 outer ones (bracteoles ?)■ 

 placed right and left, complicate, keeled, 2 inner flat or concave, parallel with the- 

 glume. Stamens 8. Style dilated at the base into a hard bulb, with 2 linear 

 stigmatic branches. Nut exserted, crowned by the persistent bulb of the style.— 

 Stem leafy. Umbel compound, the general and partial rays slender with a 

 central sessile. spikelet as in FimbristijUs. 



The genus is limited to the single species, enderrtic in Australia. 



1. E> SCleroides (Scleria-like), Benth. in Hook. le. PI. t. 1206 ; Fl. Austr.. 

 vii. 839. Stems from a creeping rhizome 2ft. high or more but slender and; 

 weak, 8-angled, leafy throughout. Leaves grass-like, long and flat, 1 to 2 lines 

 broad, tapering into long subulate points, the sheaths close. Umbel large and 

 slender, very compound, the longest rays 4 to Gin. Jong, filiform as well as the 

 pedicels. Involucral bracts several, like the leaves, but the longest scarcely so 

 long as the inflorescence." Spikelets 1 to H line long, narrow-oblong, dark 

 brown. About 6 empty glumes all obtuse, the outer ones very short, the inner 

 gradually passing into the longer flowering ones. Male flowers usually about 3, 

 and 1 rarely 2 hermaphrodite flowers in some spikelets. Hypogynous scales 

 as long as the glume, the 2 outer complicate ones with shortly :.ciliate keels,, 

 tie two inner ones parallel to the glume and flat or concave. Stamens 8. Style- 

 bulb black, larger than the ovary at the time of .flowering but not enlarged 

 afterwards. Nut quite exserted, erect, ovoid-oblong, very obtuse, about 2 lines 

 long and IJ line diameter, smooth but not shining, the remains of the spikelet 

 forming a small tuft at its base. — Cladiim scleroUes, F. v. M. Fragm. ix. 12 ;. 

 Scleria ustiUata, Bail. 3rd. Suppl. Syn, Ql. Fl. 



Hab.: Dawson and Burnett Rivers, Leichhardt ; summit of Bellenden Ker, Bailey ; towards 

 Tweed Eiver, Thos. Steel. 



In technical characters this elegant plant approaches very nearly to Mapania, and is, as it 

 were, intermediate between that genus and Hypolytrum. but the inflorescence, the minute 

 spikelets and the exserted nuts larger than the whole spikelet give it a very diHerent aspect fronr 

 any species of either genus. —Benth. 



12. LEPIRONIA, Rich. 



(Ghondrachne, li. Br.) \ 



Spikelet solitary, lateral, with numerous hermaphrodite flowers. Glumes 

 closely imbricate all round the rhaohis, concealing the floral scales, a few of the 

 lowest empty. Flowers flat. Hypogynous fcales numerous, 2 outer ones 

 (bracteoles ?) placed right and left, complicate, the keel ciliate, the others narrow, 

 flat or nearly so, closely packed in several rows. Stamens 8 or more, alternating 

 with the inner or opposite the outer scales. Style central, with 2 filiform 

 stigmatic branches. Nut flat, not ribbed.— Stems from a qreeping rhizome rush- 

 like, transversely septate inside, leafless except sheathing scales. Spikelet 

 oblique at the base of a terete involucral bract continuing the stem. 



The genus is limited to the single Australian species, which extends over the Malayan. 

 Archipelogo, parts of East India and Madagascar. 



1. Xi. mucronata (pointed), Rich, in Pers. Syn. i. 70 ; Benth. Fl. Austr. vii. 

 312. Rhizome creeping. Stems 2 to 3ft. hig(h, varying from 1 to 3 lines in 

 thickness, rigid, terete, marked by internal transverse septa giving it an articulate 

 appearance, enclosed at the base by a few long loose sheathing scales, otherwise 

 leafless. Spikelet apparently lateral, in the axil of an erect terete involucral 



