454 CONTKTBUTIONS FROM THE NATIOJSIAL liKRBAKlUM. 



margins aliglitly incurved; rachilla of the spikolots wingless; style 3-fid; nut broadly 

 ellipsoid, tapering to each end, half the length of the glunio, acabroiL^ especially at 

 apex, with small elevated points.— Leaves nearly a meter long, as much as 2 cm. 

 wide. Umbel aubglobose, 9 cm. in diameter. Spikelets 12 mm. long, 3 mm. wide. 



I doubt whether this be not really the Cyperns laetiis of Presl. 



Costa Rican collkctions: Llanos de Santa Olara, altitude 200 meters, Donndl 

 Smith 4989, 6839; Tuis. altitude (iOO meters, Tonduz 8185, 11391. 



4 



5. TORTJLINIXJM Desv. 



Spikelets terete or nearly so, maturing 4 to 16 nuts; racliilla breaking into joints; 

 nut partly inclosed by the wings of the rachilla and deciduous with its notU^; oth(>r- 



wiee like Mariscus. 



Species 8, of which 7 are endemic in America, chiefly tropical; the other distributed 



to the warmer parts of both h<Mnisplieres. 



h Torulinium conf ertum '' ILunilt. Prod. Ind. Occ. 15. 1S25, 

 Cyperus odoraius L. Sp. PL 1: 46. 1753, in part. 

 Cyperns fevQX L. C Rich. Act. Soc. Hist. Nat. Paris 1: 106. 1792. 

 Cypcnis jubacjiorus Rudge, PL Guian. 17. pi SI. 1805. 

 Marisciis pohlianas Nees in Mart. FL Bras. 2': 50. 1842. 

 Diclidium/erox SchY^d.; Nees in Mart. FL Bras. 2^: 54. 1842. 

 ifarisnis ferax C. B. Clarke in Hook. f. FL Brit. Ind. 6: 024. 1893. 

 ' Cijpcrus laetiis obtusijhrus Boeckl. Allgem. Bot. Zeitsehr. 2: 2. 189G. 

 Distribution: Occurs in all warm countries, more sparingly in the Old World, 



very common in the New and in Oceania. 



CusTA lliCAX collections: Rio Coto de Osa, Pittier 9987; La Florida, FUliir 

 11291; Talamanca, altitude to 200 meters, Tonduz 8746, 950(5; Tocori, Tonduz 7712; 

 San Rafael, Pittier, 2585; Puerto Vii^jo, Biolhy 7457. 



6. ELEOCHARIS R. Br. 



Glunn's rather many, or very numerous, in from 3 to many spirals; (he lowest 

 obtuse, usually vacant, little or not at all longer than the others; lowi'st flower bisex- 

 ual, maturing a nut; hypogynous bristles 3 to 8, usually of about the length of the 

 nut, retrorsely scabrous, sometimes wanting; stam(»ns 3 to 1, anterior; style glabrous, 

 its branches 3 or 2, linear; style base enlarged, pyramidal or bulb-like or coni<"al, 

 eaiiily distinguished from the summit of the nut; nut trigonous, or plano-convex, 

 sessile, narrowly or broadly obovoid; style pca'sistent on the nut.— Stems glabrous^ 

 leafless, bearing a single spike. 



Species 120, dispersed throughout the world ; abundant in America. 



KEY TO THK Hl'ECIES. 



Stoloniferous; stems rolnist; spikes rather long-cylindric; glumes lirm, planu-con- 

 cave, hardly keeled, deep straw-color. (Subgenus Limnochloa.) 



Stems at apex triquetrous or acutely triangular 1. E. vmtata. 



Stems at apex terete or obscurely triangular 2, A\ variegafa. 



Stems small, or of middle size; glumes meml^ranaceous, 1 to 3- 

 nerv'ed on the keel; style bifid. (Subgenus Eleogenus). 

 Sheath delicately scarious at s\mimit, rugose, easily worn ofL 



• Stems slender or cajnllary ■ 3. E. ochrcafa. 



Stems rather rigid 4. E. oUvavai. 



Sheath herbaceous at summit, or at Ictist firm. 



Annual, tufted 5. E. vapitaia, 



Rootstock horizontal, stout - 6. E. nodulosa. 



"The specific name/emx is older and unoccupied. — EniTOit. 



