1796 CLU. CYPEKACE^. [GaJmia.. 



very smooth and shining, of a rich brown-red when quite ripe, 1 to IJ line 

 long.^E. Br. Prod. 238 ; Hook. f. Fl. Tasm. ii. 97 ; Boeekel. in Linnsea, xxxviii. 

 845; Cladium filum and C. radula, Nees in Sieb. Agrostoth. n. 11 and 12^. 

 not of R. Br. ; Cladium psittacorum, F. v. M. Fragm. ix. 13 ; G. Sieheriana, 

 Kunth, Enum. ii. 882. 



Hab.: Rockingham Bay, Dallaehy ; Moretou Bay, F. v. Mueller ; and inland in swamps. 



The species, easily distinguished among all the large black panicled ones, by the number of 

 short closely imbricate outer glumes, is vary variable in the apex of these glumes- more or less 

 obtuse, in the length to which the filaments protrude after losing their anthers, and especially 

 in the size of the nuts. 



Leaf-buds eaten. — Roth. 



24. CAUSTIS, E. Br. 



(Eurostorrhiza, Steud.) 

 Spikelets with I hermaphrodite flower and often 1 male one below it, narrow,, 

 sometimes unisexual by abortion. Glumes 8 or 4, imbricate all round the- 

 rhachis, acuminate or aristate, 1 or 2 outer empty ones shorter. No hypogynous 

 bristles or scales. Stamens 3 to 6. Style slender, with a thick hard, persistent 

 base ; stigmatic branches 3, filiform. Nut ovoid or oblong crowned by the hard 

 ovoid or oblong base of the style, sometimes as big as itself and either continuous 

 with it or slightly contracted under it. — Stems from a perennial rhizome with 

 thick fibrous roots, usually leafless except sheathing scales like those of Restiacea 

 but closed, very rarely produced into linear subulate leaves, more or less paniou- 

 lately branched, the branches either erect and straight or numerous curved, 

 flexuose or revolute, the short sterile branehlets and peduncles clustered within^ 

 each sheath. Spikelets sometimes unisexual by abortion, the males and females 

 on separate stems though proceeding from the same rhizome. 



The genus is endemic in Australia. Some specimens assume so much the aspect of some 

 species of Hypolcena (Bestiacese) as to be occasionally confounded with them in herbaria. 



Spikelets (constantly?) hermaphrodite and uniform. Beak or appendage 



to the nut large and distinct. 

 Flowering branches erect and straight. Spikelets sessile or shortly 



pedunculate. Stamens usually 5 (4 to 6) ... 1. C. pentandra.. 



Pedicels slender, solitary or few together in elustera of curved flexluose or 



involute branehlets. Stamens 3 ......... 2. C. flexuosa. 



1. C. pentandra (5 stamens), B. Dr. Prod. 240 ; Benth. 1<1. Amtr. vii. 420.. 

 Stems 2ft. high or more, terete below the. branches,' but the branches when 2 or 

 liiore in a cluster flattened or excavate along the inner side with acute angles, 

 the whole cluster terete. Flowering branches long and erect ; clusters of Ibarren 

 ones few and often 3 to 4in. long, erect or slightly curved. Sheathing scales 

 usually tapering into long points. Spikelets rather numerous, erect, ijsually a 

 sessile arid pedunculate one from the same sheath, 6 to 8 lines long, all 

 apparently equally fertile. Glunies rigid, minutely pubescent, with long subulate 

 points or awns. Stamens 5 in the hermaphrodite flower, often 2 or 3 only in the 

 male one. Persistent style-base oblong, furrowed, pubescent, larger than the 

 nut. — Hook. f. Fl. Tasm. ii. 98 ; P. v. M. Fragm. ix. 19 ; Eurostorrhiza UrvilUi,. 

 Steud. Syn. Glum. ii. 265. 



Hab.: Queensland, F. v. 31. ' 



2. C. flexuosa (flexuose), B. Br. Prod. 239 ; Benth. Fl. Austr. vii. 421. 

 Stems 1 to 2ft. high or even more ; branches numerous, solitary within the lower 

 sheaths, clustered in the upper ones and often several times divided, the ultimate- 

 clustered branches filiform, 1 to 2in. long or even longer, all very flexuose or 

 incurved. Sheathing scales brown, with short erect points. Spikelets single, on 

 pedicels mixed with the clustered branches and resembling them, very narrow 

 linear, 3 to 4 lines long, all apparently equally fertile. Glumes narrow, acute^ 



