384 CYPEEACE^. {pyperacea. 



Hypogynous bristles 4 or 6 . 8. Scikpus. 



Hypogynous scales 3, flat ■ ®' 1* '"B^"*- 



Spikeleti \-flowered for toith a second male flower), closely im- 

 bricate in small heads or spikes resemiling spiielets. 



Scales under the spikelets small or aone 2. Kyllingia. 



Scales under the spikelets as long as them, imbricate and glume- 

 like. 

 Spikes in a sessile head. Glumes concave (very thin) ... 3. Lipocarpha. 



Spikes paniculate. Glumes flat, keeled 4. HrpoELYTKUM. 



Spikelets 1- or few-flowered, with several empty glumes below 

 them ; in panicles, clusters, or spikes, but not imbricate. 

 Hypogynous bristles 6. Nut crowned by the base of tlie style 10. Rhynchospoea. 

 No hypogynous bristles. 



Nut thick, tapering at the top. Spikelets paniculate . . .11. ClADluM. 

 Style articulate below the bulbous base. Spikelets in a ter- 

 minal head. No leaves 12. Aetheosttlis. 



Stamens 4 to 6, very long and persistent. Spikelets clus- 

 tered in spikes, forming a narrow panicle 13. Gahnia. 



Nut seated on a thickened toothed disk. Spikelets clustered 



in compound spikes 14. Lepidospeema. 



Mowers unisexual, in unisexual or androgynous spikelets. 



Nut very hard, seated on a thickened entire or lobed disk . . .15. Scleria. 

 Nut enclosed in a 2-toothed utricle .16. Caeex. 



1. CYPEBUS, Linn. 



Spikelets several-iloweved (very rarely 2- or 3-ilowered). Glumes disti- 

 chous, all nearly equal, with 1 flower in each, or 1 or 2 lowest rarely empty. 

 Plowers hermaphrodite, without hypogynous scales or bristles. Stamens 3 

 or fewer. Style continuous with the ovary, not bulbous at the base. — Spike- 

 lets in clusters, heads, or spikes, which are usually several together in a simple 

 or compound irregular umbel. 



A very large tropical and subtropical genus, represented by a few species in more tempe- 

 rate regions, and quite disappearing in the extreme north and south. 



Style 2-cleft. Nut flattened. 



Spikelets obtnse. Nuts ovate or obovate. 



Spikelets pale-coloured, rather narrow, shining. Glumes scarious 



on the edge. Stamens 2 \. C. vulgaris. 



Spikelets broad. Glumes edged with red-brown. Stamens 3 . . 2. C. Eragrostis. 

 Spikelets acute, densely clustered. Nuts narrow-oblong .... 3. C. polystachya. 

 Style 3-cleft. Nuts more or less 3-angled. 



Spikelets obtuse. Nuts as long as the very obtuse glumes. 



Spikelets in dense globose heads. Glumes dark-brown, scarcely 



one-third line long 4,. C. diffomis. 



Spikelets m loose clusters or spikes. Glumes at least two-thirds of a 

 line long. 



Spikelets very flat, yellowish-green B. C. Iria. 



Spikelets nairow-linear, more or less brown 12. C. distans. 



Spikelets acute or tapering to the end. 

 Spikelets 2 to 3 lines long. 

 Spikelets clustered at, the ends of the rays. 



Slender plant. Glumes scarcely pointed, not i line long, all 



flowering g ^ Hasvan 



Low stiff plant. Glumes above 1 line long, with prominent 

 points, the lower 2 smaller and empty 7. p. radians. 



