IRbodora 
JOURNAL OF 
THE NEW ENGLAND BOTANICAL CLUB 
Vol. 20. November, 1918. No. 239 
AN INTERGENERIC HYBRID IN THE CYPERACEAE. 
M. L. FERNALD. 
(Plate 125.) 
In September, 1915, Mr. C. A. Weatherby discovered on the sandy 
shore of Simmons Pond in Dennis, Massachusetts, a very remarkable 
plant which combined the aspect of Rynchospora with elongate many- 
scaled spikelets similar to those of Cyperus. The material originally 
collected was practically all sterile, the spikelets bearing no well- 
formed flowers. In view of the surprisingly large number of repre- 
sentatives known on Cape Cod of extreme austral groups, attempts 
were made to identify the Dennis plant with austral genera of the 
Cyperaceae, but nothing was found with which it could be satisfac- 
torily placed. 
In August, 1918, Mr. Bayard Long and the writer visited Simmons 
Pond with the hope of rediscovering Mr. Weatherby’s anomalous 
plant, which happily was found at apparently the original station, a 
single tussock from which a portion had obviously been removed. 
A few additional specimens were taken but the root was undisturbed, 
and study of this material shows it to be identical with Mr. Weath- 
erby’s specimens except that in the new material a few aborted flowers 
are present. These flowers completely lack a perianth, as in Cyperus, 
but are surrounded by 2 or 3 scales, as in Rynchospora, and the 
minute and shrunken achene is capped by a clearly discernible, 
though shrunken, tubercle, as in Rynchospora. The few flowers found 
so clearly combine the traits of Cyperus and Rynchospora, the genera 
which are closely simulated by the inflorescences of the plant, that it 
