IRbobora 



JOURNAL OF 



THE NEW ENGLAND BOTANICAL CLUB 



Vol. 8. August, 1906. No. 92 



THE (JEXUS SPHENOPHOLIS. 



F. Lamson-S(^ribner. 



The grasses which for nearly seventy years have been referred to 

 the EaUmia of Rafinescjue, constitute a small genus, but the characters 

 which serve to distinguish it, the history of its development and rela- 

 tions with other genera, the remarkable inter-relation of its species 

 and their geographical distribution are all points of more than usual 

 interest. The species have been classified by botanists under seven 

 genera and the seven species we here recognize have been cited under 

 more than forty nam-es. Michaux in 1S()3 placed his one species in 

 Aim, and Sprengel, Muhlenburg, Elliott and some other authors of 

 that period followed him. Desvaux (1808) referred the species to 

 .1 irop.s-is, while De Candolle in 1813, and Torrey in 1824, referred them 

 to Koeleria. Trinius })laced them in Triscium in the section Colo- 

 hanthus, which Sjnich took up later (184()) as a genus, but too late for 

 its adoption, the name having already been used by Bartling (1800). 

 In the same year (18.30) Kunth, recognizing the generic value of the 

 characters present in the species, established upon Michaux's Aim 

 ohfusata the genus Rehoulea, renaming Michaux's plant Reboulea 

 nmriliff. Gray took up Rchnulea in the first edition of his Manual 

 (1848), but in the meantime Endhcher (1837), who doubtless was 

 aware that the name Reboulea had been applied to a genus of hepatics 

 ten years prior to its adoption by Kunth, was induced for some reason, 

 to refer the species to Eaionia of Rafinesque. This name was adopted 

 by Gray in the second edition of his Manual (1856) and by all subse- 

 quent authors. After a careful reading of Rafinesque's diagnosis of 



