FLORA OF THE SUNDRIBUNS. 
269 
or of the sea-borne plants of the Sundribuns are absent from 
the Coast of Coromandel. Nor is this quite all; of the littoral species 
' found only in the northern clearings, three*fourths, and of the littoral 
species found only at the sea face, three-fifths are species that occur 
on the Coromandel Coast, while both the saltworts, which affect muddy 
slopes covered by every tide, are also Coromandel plants. The 
proportion of species that occur within the Sundribun forests proper 
but are not to be found on the Coast of Coromandel is thus appre- 
ciably increased and exceeds 50 per cent, of the characteristic Flora. 
V.— GUIDE TO THE GENERA. 
An attempt is made in the following guide to the genera of plants 
that occur in the Sundribuns to provide a key sufficiently simple for 
use by Forest officers and their subordinates at most seasons of the 
year. 
In using this key it is essential that in each case doth the con- 
trasting statements given for one of the numbers on the left-hand side 
of the page' should be carefully read before deciding to which of the 
two categories a plant belongs. This done, the number printed in 
italics against the categorical statement on the right-hand side of the 
page carries the student to the proper passage. For example, a species 
is found to possess flowers ; we pass to 2 : it is not a grass or a sedge ; 
we pass to 29 : it is not a floating or submerged aquatic ; we pass to 
44 : it is neither epiphytic nor parasitic ; we pass to 59 : it has no 
tendrils ; we pass to 7 1 : the leaves are not gland-dotted ; we pass to 
81 : the leaves have distinct leaf-blades ; we pass to 83 : the leaves are 
compound ; we go on with 84 : they are opposite; we pass to 124 : the 
leaflets are digitate; we know the plant to be a Vztex. Which Vt^ex 
it is we learn on turning to the 1 39th genus in the Systematic List 
where the differential characters of the species of this genus hitherto 
met with in the Sundribuns are given. 
1. Plants with distinct flowers ...... 2 
Plants without flowers [Ferns and Fern-Allies) . . 
2. Plants with grassy stems; leaves with a distinct leaf-sheath, 
sometimes only the sheath present ; flowers in spikelets 
in the axils of glumes [Sedges and Grasses') . . j 
Plants with woody or herbaceous stems, or if the stems 
grassy [Bulrushes) the flowers then not in spikelets . 29 
3. Leaves 3-ranked, rarely without leaf-blades, the sheaths 
closed in front ; fruit a small nut with the seed free 
inside ; flowers with a glume only [Sedges) , , 4 
