C«rw-.] OWL CYPEBACB^. 1807 



promineBtly 8-augled. — ^Bootfc, III. Car. iii. 108, t. 381, 382 ; Sieb. Agrosfcoth. n. 

 11 ; Hook. f. Fl. Tasm. ii. lOJ ; F. v. M. Fragm. vlii. 250 ; C. Brmvnei, Steud. 

 Syj. Gium. ii. 209. 

 Hab,; Upper Brisbane lliver, F. v. Mueller. 



16. C. pseudocyperus (false Cyperus), Linn. ; Kunth, Knum. ii. 501 ; 

 Benth. Fl. Austr. vii. 448. Stems stout, angular, 2 to 3ft. high. Leaves long, 2 

 to 5 Hues broad. Spikelot^ 2 to 5, all, pedunculate and at length pedulous, but 

 usually near together at the end of the stem, cylindrical, 1 to 2in. long, the 

 terminal one male the others female. Outer bracts long and leaflike. Glumes 

 very shortly ovate or lanceolate, taipering into fine points. Utricles when ripe 

 very spreading or reflexed, ovoid-oblong at the base, strongly nerved and 

 tapering into a long rigidly acuminate 2-cleft beak, the whole utricle including 

 the beak varying from, 2 to 8 lines, on a very short snipes. — E. Br. Prod. 243 ; F. 

 v. M. Fragm. viii. 249 ; C. fasckaltiris, Soland. ; Boott, 111. Car. i. 53, t. 139 ; 

 Hook. f. Fl. Tasm. ii. 101. 



Hab.: Boyne lliver, Hartmaim ; Stradfarolie Island, BM^tfr- 



Okdek CLIII, GRAMINE^. 



Flowers hermaphrodite or unisexual, iu little green or more or less scarious 

 spikes called spikeUls,. consisting of several scale-like distichous bracts called 

 glumes, the 2 or sometimes 1 or rarely 3 or more lower ones with sometimes 1 or 

 more upper ones empty, the other 1 or more with 1 sessile flower in the axil of 

 each. No normal perianth, but the flower usually enclosed in a 2-nerved glume- 

 liko scale called a }ialc(i (supposed to represent the 2 bracteoles of Hypolytreae or 

 the perigynium of Gariceae), and the perianth probably represented by 2 or rarely 

 3 smi^ll usually very thin and hyaline scales called ZorficM^cs, the palea or the 

 iodicules, or both deficient in a few genera. Stamens usually 3, occasionally 

 reduced to 2 or 1, in a few genera or more ; filaments free, filiform ; anthers 

 usually exserted from the gpikelet, versatile, Ovate oblong or linear, with 2 

 parallel cells opening ,lo,ngitudi)ialiy without any prominent connective. Ovary 

 entire, l-;celled,: with 1 erect anatropous ovule. Styles 2 or rarely 8, free or 

 united at the base into a 2 or 3-branched style, the upper stigmatic portion or 

 stifimas usually long, either feathery with simple or ^branched stigmatic hairs, or 

 more I'arely simple with, the stigmatic hairs very short or reduced to scarcely 

 prominent papillse. I'ruit a small seed-like nut or utricle, often enclosed in the 

 palea and subtending glume, the thin membranous pericarp usually closely adnate 

 to tlie seed and inseparable from it, sometimes adnate also to the enclosing palea, 

 in a few genera free and. loosely surrounding the seed. Seed erect, albuminous, 

 with a thin adnate testa^ Embryo small, usually globular or nearly so, on one 

 side of the base of the albumen. — Herbs usually tufted or deciunbent or creeping 

 and rooting as the base, sometimes tall and branching, or iu some shrubby or 

 arborescent. Stems usually hpUow between the nodes. Leaves alternate, entire 

 parallel-veined, usually long and narrow, sheathing the stem at theii? base, but 

 the sheaths split open from the base opposite, the blade and often ending within 

 tiie blade in a transverse scarious or ciliate appendage called a ligula. Inflores- 

 cence terminal, rarely also from the sheaths of the upper leaves, the spikelets 

 variously arraiiged in spikes, racemes, panicles or heads. Bracts occasionally but 

 rarely subtending the branches of the panicle or single spikelets. 



A very large Order, abundantly diffused 6ver the whole world, in almost every variety of 

 station, and supplying many of the moat important articles of food and raiment, or applied to a 

 great variety of economical purposes. 



For the arrangement of the Tribes and Sub-tribes I have followed that of Hooker in the vii,. 

 vol. of the Fl. of British India. 



