Journal of the Federated Malay States museums - Sabrizain.org

194 Journal of the F.M.S. Museums. [Vol. VI,
275. SCHCENUS DISTICHUS, n. Sp.
A small tufted plant, forming small clumps; the stem
erect, from less than an inch to 6 inches or more long,
branched, and terminating in flattened branches with distichous
close-set leaves. Leaf- bases coppery, above bright green,
linear, triquetrous, scabrid, stiff, i to 6 inches long and ^^2 i"ch
or less thick. Inflorescence shorter than the leaves, from one
of the upper axils. Culm slender, strongly curved, bearing 2
or 3 sheathing leaves. Sheaths with a broad scarious margin;
back green, grooved; from the sheath rise one or two branches
half an inch long, angled, scabrid, bearing one fusiform
spikelet ^ inch long. Glumes 4, imbricate, lanceolate,
maculate, deep violet-purple, keeled; lower ones empty,
terminal one only fertile. Style trifid, slender, purple. Nut
pale pyriform, covered with ihe pericarp, obscurely 3-angled
and beaked; hypogynous bristles none.
Padang, abundant, but seldom in flower; Perak, Gunong
Kerbau, 7,000 feet altitude {Aniff, May igio). •
This remarkable little sedge, with its leaves forming small
fans, was very abundant on the Padang in dry or slightly
damp spots. It forms clumps a few inches across, and in
most places was only an inch or two high. I found it larger
in damper shadier spots under bushes on the summit of
Gunong Tahan, and the specimens sent from Gunong Kerbau
by Mohammed Aniff were very much larger, having a stout
stem six inches long and leaves of equal length.
The flowers were difficult to find, and it does not seem to
be at all floriferous. It only bears a few spikelets on its very
short culm. The spikelets resemble those of other species of
the genus, but there are no visible hypogynous bristles. I do
not know any plant resembling it.
276. SCLERIA CARPHIFORMIS, n. Sp.
Stems 2 to 3 together in a tuft, thick at base, covered with
hairy red sheaths about one inch or less long, lower sheaths
split on one side with a lanceolate point on the other. Leaves
3 or 4, linear, obtuse, 6 inches, long, | inch wide, glaucous
green with long white hairs on the edges and keel. Panicle
shorter, 2 inches long, with two or three distant fascicles of
spikelets, subsessile, or the lower one shortly pedicelled.
Bracts leafy, the upper-most one elongate, i^ inch long,
resembling an ordinary leaf. Spikelets 2 or 5 together, 2 to 3
males to one female. Male spikelet |t inch long, subterete;
glumes dark red with white hairs. Four lower glumes
narrowly lanceolate-cuspidate, empty; four terminal ones
similar, but each containing 3 stamens. Filaments bright red,
longer than the glumes. Anthers very narrow, linear, long,
minutely cuspidate. Female spikelet shorter and thicker, with
4 bracts, the lowest ovate, lanceolate, but the others lanceolate,
reddish, all with white hairs. Flower solitary. Style slender,
trifid. Nut hemispheric with a broad base, ^ inch long,
white, thickly sprinkled over with pustules bearing brownish
hairs stellately arranged. Disc large, flat, orbicular.