316 NOTES FROM THE BOTANIC GARDENS, SYDNEY, No. 13, 



in diameter with more than 30 spikelets, the involucral bracts 

 small and subulate, shorter than the matured heads and generally 

 concealed in the spikelets. Spikelets variable in length, with 

 from a few to above 12 flowering glumes, the longest about 5 

 lines long. Flowering glumes pale brown with a thick, lighter- 

 coloured keel terminating in a short straight or slightly recurved 

 point, the keel smooth but occasionally very slightly denticulate, 

 the sides nerveless. No hypogynous bristles. Stamens 1 only 

 in all spikelets examined. Style-branches 3. Mature nuts pale 

 brown, three-angled, smooth; sterile nuts white, empty except for 

 a shrivelled-up ovule, about one-half the size of the fertile nuts. 



The species is not closely allied to any Australian Scirpus 

 described in the ' Flora Australiensis'; its position in the system 

 is near S. inundatus Spreng. The most characteristic feature in 

 the new species is the numerous sterile nuts. In Mr. Boorman's 

 specimens, collected in June, we found only sterile nuts; but 

 when he returned in August to the locality and brought large 

 quantities of specimens, we found a few solid fertile nuts. The 

 numerous unfertilised nuts may be caused by local circumstances, 

 and the specimens may be abnormal. 



Scripus cernuus Vahl, var. australiensis, n.var. 



Cobham Lake (W. Bauerlen; September, 1887). 



A small annual with setaceous stems 1 to 3 inches high. 

 Leaves very short, hardly longer than the sheath. Spikelets 

 terminal, single or more generally in pairs, hardly above 1 line 

 long. Involucral bract generally solitary, about \ of an inch 

 long, spreading or continuing the stem so that the terminal 

 spikelets appear lateral, occasionally with a second short bract. 

 Glumes light-coloured, not numerous, ovate, rather acute, with a 

 broad keel and veinless almost transparent sides. No hypogynous 

 bristles. Stamens solitary in the few spikelets we could examine. 

 Style-branches 3. Nut ovoid, about one-half as long as the 

 glume, 3-angled, smooth on the sides. 



So many botanists have examined this plant, and we have 

 made use of their observations, that we can only technically 

 claim to be the authors of the variety. 



