from the East Coast of Demerara. 407 



high, and the spikelets, which are one-sided, about six-tenths of an 

 inch in length. They are not entirely erect; although this is the 

 case where there are merely two, and in the middle spikelet where 

 there are three, the lateral ones are nearly horizontally disposed. 

 It has spread over a great part of the habitable globe. Von Mar- 

 tius found it at Bahia, Pernambuco and Piauhy ; Humboldt near 

 Cumana and in Mexico, near the port of Acapulco, and at the 

 lake of Cuizeo at a height of upwards of 5000 feet. It is de- 

 scribed from almost all warm countries, as e. g. from Northern 

 Africa, the East and West Indies, the Moluccas, and it has like- 

 wise been found in North America* and even in Sicily in Europe. 



Cyperacea. Sedges. 



Cyperus Luzula, N. ab E. in Mart, et Endl. Fl. Bras. Fasc. iii. — v. 20 ; 



Kunth, En. PL ii. 43 ; Meyer, I. c. 30 (var. 8. glomeratus) ; Humb. 



et Kunth, Nov. Gen. i. 209. 



I collected this specimen in the neighbourhood of Georgetown, 

 where it grows near trenches. It does not appear that its geogra- 

 phical distribution extends beyond the tropical regions of Ame- 

 rica ; Humboldt collected it on the banks of the Cassiquiare. 



Cyperus nemorosus, Meyer, I.e. 31 ; Kunth, /. c. 60. 



This sedge, which stands intermediate between C. rotundus and 

 C. tenuiflorus, is very common along the trenches and dams in 

 Georgetown. Guiana appears to be the only locality where it has 

 hitherto been found. Meyer describes it from Aruabisi (Tiger 

 Island), a small island in the mouth of the Essequibo. 



Cyperus fer ax, Rich. ; Kunth, En. PI. ii. 89. 

 Cyperus distans, Meyer, nee Rottb. 

 Cyperus stellatus, Rudge, Guian. 17. t. 20. 



Savannah or Razor-grass. 

 The edges of the leaves of this species are so sharp, that coming 

 in contact with the hand or any other fleshy part of the body 

 they inflict a wound as if by the edge of a knife, which has 

 besides the disadvantage of healing with more difficulty than if 

 caused by a sharp-edged instrument. Thevet, in his curious 

 work, ( Les Singularity's de la France Antarctique, Paris, 1558/ 

 describes this sharp-edged sedge, and observes that the Indian 

 females use it to shave off the hair on the eye-brows of their 

 husbands, and that the blades are as sharp as a razor. It 

 grows generally on savannahs, from which and the sharpness of 

 its edges it has received the vernacular names. Poppig collected 

 it at Peru : New Granada and Montserrat are given as other lo- 



* Trinius figures a species from North America in the first vol. of his 

 * Spec. Gramin. Icon, et Descr.' 



