50 



T. Holm— Studies in the Cyperaeece. 



Fig. 2. Basal inflo- 

 rescence of S. pauci- 

 flora. Explanation in 

 the text. 



distinctly carinate. The bracts as well as the peduncle are 

 more or less hairy, but we have not figured 

 these hairs, since they would make the 

 details of the spikes less distinct. Behind 

 this axillary spike is another one to be seen, 

 which terminates the peduncle and which, 

 therefore, lacks the prophyllon. Just above 

 the bract (B' J ) is a short internode, upon 

 which three scale-like bracts follow (b\ b 2 

 and F), the innermost of which encloses 

 an almost mature fruit with its character- 

 istic white and warty pericarp. The com- 

 position of the female spike becomes then 

 merely reduced to a short rhachis, bearing 

 three distichous bracts and a single flower, 

 which has developed from the axil of the 

 innermost bract. It might appear, accord- 

 ing to this and similar depauperate inflo- 

 rescences, as if the female flower were 

 actually terminal, inasmuch as no rudi- 

 mentary elongation of the rhachis was to 

 be observed, but in view of the androgy- 

 nous spikes, it seems most natural to sup- 

 pose that the flower is axillary rather than 

 terminal. As already stated, some -specimens have been 

 observed to be exclusively female, and these showed an arrange- 

 ment of the flowers corresponding 

 to that above described (figure 2), 

 with the exception that a larger 

 number, three or four, spikes were 

 developed. When the spike is 

 androgynous, the female flower is 

 constantly situated in the axil of 

 the second bract (h*) as shown in 

 our figure 3, while the first male 

 flower (S) develops in the axil of 

 the third bract (b 3 ). This last bract 

 attains a larger size than in the 

 female spikes, while the succeeding 

 bracts, all subtending male flowers, 

 decrease in size and texture, the 

 innermost being very narrow and 

 membranaceous. The female flower 

 is thus preceded by only one empty bract in the androgynous 

 spikes, and the first male flower appears immediately within 

 the third bract. This circumstance seems to support our 

 theory of the female flower as being axillary and not terminal. 

 The biseriate arrangement of the bracts in the female spike 



Fig. 3. A female and an 

 androgynous spike of Scleria 

 pauciflora. Explanation in the 

 text. 



