Selena.} CUI. OYPERACE-Sl. 1801 



11. S. chinensis (of China), Kimth, Emm. ii. 857; Benth. Fl. Amir. vii. 

 431. Stems 2 to 8ft. high, glabrous as well as the foliage. Leaves 2 to 5 lines 

 broad, the sheaths more or less winged on the angles, the ligula membranous, 

 often 3 to 5 lines long, but on other leaves short. Terminal panicle dense, much 

 branched, 2 to 4in. long, and 1 or 2 smaller axillary ones lower down. Outer 

 bracts or floral leaves long and leaflike and numerous subulate acuminate bracts 

 within the panicle protruding far beyond the spikelets. Spikelets numerous and 

 crowded, unisexual, usually 1 female and 1 or 2 males in each cluster, the males 

 narrow, about 2 lines long, the females with much broader glumes. Nut globular, 

 white, regularly tuberculate-rugose and sometimes sparingly pubescent. Disk 

 adnate, with 3 broad lobes from very obtuseto almost acute ; outer disk scarcely 

 prominent.— Bceekel. in Linnasa, xxxviii. 486 ; F. v. M. Fragm. ix. 20. 



Hab.: Eockingham Bay,' DuUachy; Dunk and Goold Islailds, M'GUHvray; Lower Iterlcifc 

 Biver, Herb. F. Shteller. 

 Also in the Malayan Archipelago and South China. 



12. S. sphacelata (withered), F. v. iV. Frafjm. in.. 20 ; Baith. Fl. Au.iti: 

 vii. 432. Stems 1^ to 3tt. high, glabrous as well as the foliage. Leaves long 

 and narrow, the recurved margins and keel scabrous, the sheaths acutsly 3-angled 

 but not winged, and no ligula. Panicles numerous, 1 to near 2in. long, terminal 

 and in the up^er axils, the lower ones pedunculate and distant, the spikelets in 

 the male plant very numerous and densely clustered on the short branches of the 

 partial panicles, rather less numerous but still clustered in the female. Outer 

 bracts or floral leaves long and distant, the upper ones gradually shorter and 

 more approximate. Spikelets scarcely 2 lines long. Glumes in the males 

 numerous, obtuse or nearly so, 8 or 4 outer empty ones more acute or acuminate, 

 with dark brown margins and keels or brdwn all over. Stamens 3. Female 

 spikelets rather larger, with 3 or 4 acute or acuminate glumes, and no empty ones 

 above the flower. Nut globular, tuberoulate, more or less pubescent. Disk with 

 3 very broad spreading membranous truncate lobes.' 



Hab.: Suttor Biver, F. v. Mueller; Kockingham Bay, Dallachy; Kookh^mpton, OSIianesy, 

 Tkozet and others ; Springsure Cliffs, Wuth ; Brisbane River, Bailey ; Archer's Creek, 

 Leichliardt. 



Very different in aspect as well as in character from other species. 



26. CAREX, Lint). 



(From' keiro, to cut, the leaves of some species having their margins 



minutely serrated.) 



Flowers unisexual, in unisexual or androgynous spikelets. . Glumes imbricate 

 all round the rhachis. Stamens in the males 3 or rarely fewer, without 

 hypogynous bristles or scales. Ovary in the females enclosed in a bottle-shaped 

 or inflated utricle or perigynium, contracted at the top, with a small oblique or 

 2-toothed orifice, and at the base of the ovary within the utricle is often a bristle 

 (a barren pedicel) usually very small, not hooked, rarely protruding from the 

 utricle and etitirely wanting in many species. Style protruding with 2 or 3 

 filiform stigmatio branches. Nut flattened or 3-angled, enclosed in the somewhat 

 enlarged persistent utricle.-^Perennials with grass-like leaves, mostly radical or 

 on the lower part of the stem. Spikelets either solitary and terminal or few, one 

 lierminal the others more or less 'distant, sessile or pedunculate, or many in a 

 terminal panicle or compound spike. Male flowers collected together in the 

 terminal spikelet or at the upper end rarely at the lower end of the androgynous 

 spikelets. Floral bracts often leaflike under the lower spikelets or branches of 

 the panicle, usually small ' and glnme-like under the upper one, and sometimes 

 under all. 



This genus, the largest among Cyperacea;, is abundant in the temperate and cooler regions 

 fli both hemispheres and in mouniainons distriols within the tropics, with a few species even 

 in the hotter regions. 



