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A new Genus in Cyperacee. 
By S. Hart WRIGHT. 
WEBSTERIA, GEN. NOV.—Spikes one-flowered, ovate-lan- 
ceolate, pedicelate, umbellate. Peduncles umbellate. Culms 
terete, wiry, stramineous, flexuous, slender, smooth, repeatedly 
umbellately branching. Culms, branches, peduacles, pedicels 
and leaves sheathed. Glumes two only, the nearly opposite 
lower one empty, and somewhat shorter. Style one, bifid two- 
thirds of its length, and plumose on the bifurcations, as long as the 
glumes. Achenia ovate, olive-colored, or brown, minutely pitted 
in finely striate lines, compressed, rostrate with the persistent 
cylindrical base of the style—not tuberculate. Stamens three, 
with the anthers longer than the filaments. Sete tortuous, six 
to ten, often seven, barbed downward, unequal, longer than the 
nut, and nearly white. Named for Mr. Geo. W. Webster, an 
active botanist in Florida. 
WEBSTERIA LIMNOPHILA, SP. NOV.—Plant growing entirely 
under water. Culm 1 to 3 feet long, the internodes on the culm 
_and branches 3 to 10 inches apart, having long tubular sheaths, 
ending with an awl-shaped bract. Culm and leaves faintly knot- 
ted, as if by internal cross-partitions. Leaves capillary, smooth, — 
I to 2 inches long, sheathed at base, and in umbellate clusters, 
terminating the umbellate peduncles and branches. Pedicels 
umbellate, 1% to 1 inch long, sheathed nearly the whole length. 
Peduncles umbellate, unequal, 1 to 2 inches long, sheathed. 
Glumes ¥% to ¥% of an inch long, attenuated at apex, the lower 
one three-veined inside, empty, the fertile glume one-veined, 
both with reddish-brown margins. Involucral leaves few, 1 to 3 
inches long, 1-10th inch wide, soon decaying. Roots fibrous, 
growing in muddy bottoms of shallow lakes, the culms ascending 
obliquely in the water. Volusia County, Florida, May. 
Observations: It may seem anomalous that a cyperaceous 
plant should be wholly and habitually aquatic, as this is. I dis- 
covered it in December, 1886, in a lake two miles S. E. of the 
village of Lake Helen, in Volusia Co., Florida, not being in fruit. 
Mr. G. W. Webster found it in fruit in April and May, and in 
several lakes. The genus is probably in the subtribe Cyperee, 
and near Dulichium. PENN YAN, N. Y., June 1, 1887. 
