<:honsand,a.] CLII. CYPERACE^. 1779 



2. C. cymbaria (boat-shaped), R. Br. Prod. 221 ; Benth. Fl. Austr. vii. 345. 

 Stems from a thick creeping rhizome 2 to 3ft. high or even more, rigid, rush- 

 like, more or less distinctly marked with transverse septa. Leaves few, erect, 

 terete, and stem-like, often longer than the stem, with long loose open sheaths or 

 the lower ones reduced to sheathing scales. Spikelet ovoid or nearly globular, 



'«rect but half emersed in the dilated base of the erect involucral bract go as 

 to appear adnate. Glumes very broad, obtuse, membranous. Flowers not 

 flattened. Hypogynous scales about 16, rather longer than the gliimes, 

 imbricate, oblong-spathulate in the upper part, dark-coloured, somewhat 



•concave, denticulate or jagged. Stamens about 12, alternating with the inner 

 scales (or opposite the outer ones). Nut obovoid -globular, 1^ line diameter, 

 with about 8 very prominent longitudinal ribs. — P. v. M. Fragm. ix. 18. 



Hab.: Brisbane lUver, MoretonBay, F. v. Mueller,- LeicMiardt, Bailey ;-.and other southern 

 -localities. 



14. RE MI RE A, Aubl. 



(Its name in Guiana.) 



Spikelets small, densely capitate, with a single terminal hermaphrodite flower. 

 •Glumes 4, the 2 outer ones imbricate, the third larger, membranons, enveloping 



the fourth which is thick and fleshy, enclosing the flower. No hypogynous scales 

 •or bristles. Stamens 3. Style continuous with the ovary, not thickened at the 

 ■base, deciduous ; stigmatic branches usually 3, filiform. Nut closely enveloped 



in the inner 2 • glumes, ovoid-triquetrous, often slightly compressed. — Low 



branching perennial. Leaves linear, with short imbricate sheathing bases. 



Spikelets very numerous, in ovoid sessile spikes solitary or clustered and 



surrounded by leafy involucral bracts. 



The genus is limited to the single Australian species, which is dispersed along the sandy 

 -Eea-coasts of most tropical countries. 



1. XL. maritima (a sea-side plant), Aubl. PL Gut. i. 45, t. 16, var. 

 pedunculata ; Benth. Fl. Austr. vii. 347. Stems from a creeping and rooting base 

 ascending or erect, much branched, a few in. high, completely covered with the 

 imbricate bases of the leaves in the typical form, produced into a peduncle in 

 •this variety. Leaves rigid, I to Bin. long, 1^ to 8 lines broad at the base, 

 tapering into a point often pungent, dilated at the base into a short open sheath. 

 Spikes ovoid, 4 to 6 lines long, solitary or more frequently several together sessile 

 in a terminal head or cluster surrounded by 3 to 6 involucral bracts, the longest 

 1 to 2in.. long. Spikelets very numerous, terete, usually about 2 lines long 

 subtended by a glume-like bract. Lower' glume short, the ■ second longer, both 

 ■broad and appressed but open longitudinally, the third 2 lines long, membranous, 

 very broad but closely wrapped round the fourth or flowering glume, which is 

 shorter and much thickened, becoming harder round the ripe nut. — Boeckel. in 

 Linnffia, xxxv. 485 ; R. pedunculata, R. Br. Prod. 236, Kunth, Enuni. ii. 139 ; 

 F. v. M. Fragm. ix. 20. 



Hab.: Abundant on the sandy sea-shores of the eastern coast, E. Brown, A. Cunningham, 

 ballachy ; and many others. 



In the typical American specimens, as in the majority of the African and some of the East 

 Indian ones, the branches are leafy almost or quite up to the involucral bracts. 



16. ARTHROSTYLES, R. Br. 



(Referring to the style being articled.) 



Spikelets with a single hermaphrodite flower or rarely with a second male 

 flower. Glumes several, all but the uppermost 1 or 2 empty imbricate all round 

 the rhachis. Hypogynous bristles none. Stamens or staminodia 6, filaments 8 

 rshort with perfect anthers, 3 much longer with very^decidiious (or without ?). 



