132 HORTUS JAMAICENSTS. . rushes 



Stems creeping, rough-haired; leaves broad-lanceoiate, petioled ; heads or- 

 biculate, naked. 

 Stem round, reddish, hairy all over, dichotomou^, creeping over the earth, in tufts, 

 for some feet ; almost every joint sending fortli roots. Leaves opposite, quite entire, 

 even, hairy underneath, smooth above, veined, acute, ending at the base in petioles 

 the length of the leaf, and somewhat hairy. Flowers axillary, white, and under them 

 a three-leaved braete shorter than the flower ; filaments simple, shorter than the co- 

 rolla ; germ compressed. Tins plant is found creeping in all the savannas about King- 

 ston and Spanish Town. 



2. VERMICULATU.J. WORM. 



jimaranthoides humile currassavicitm Jbliis crpece lucidis, capiiulis' 

 albis. Sloane, v. 1, p. 141. Nepens rufescens, foliis linearibus 

 crassiusculis, capitulis alaribus. Browne, p. 184. 



Stems creeping, smooth ; leaves sub-cylindric, fleshy ; heads oblong, smooth, 

 terminating. 

 From the root is scattered on every hand a great many trailing branches, about a foot 

 long, round, red, jeinted, smooth, small, and having branches set opposite to one 

 another at every joint. Leaves almost round, green, one-third of an inch long, oppo- 

 site. At the ends of the branches come the flowers, being set in a head close together, 

 each of them being iong, tubulous, yellow within, and white above. It grew near the 

 sea side. Piso says it has somewhat the qualities of samphire, the short branches and 

 leaves, a little boiled, and covered with vinegar, being eaten as a pickle, he says, open 

 obstructions, and excites the appetite. Sloane. Browne calls it the creeping gom- 

 pJirena, common about Rock River, and spreading a great way among the grass, root- 

 ing.at every joint; the whole having a reddish brown cast, and something like purs- 

 lane.* Swartz also places this plant among the gomphrenas, on account of its having 

 commonly two styles, a two or three-leaved calyx, with a nectary and lanugo between 

 the calyx and corolla. 



RUSHES. SCIRPUS. 



Cl. 3, or. 1. Triandria monogynia. Nat. or. Calamaria. 

 Gen. char. Calyx spike imbricate all round ; scales ovate, from fiat, bent in, dis- 

 tinguishing the fiawers ; no corolla; stamens three filaments, finally becoming 

 longer, widi oblong anthers ; the pistil has a very small germ ; a filiform long 

 style; three capillary stigmas; no pericarp; seed one, three-sided, acuminate, 

 surrounded with villose hairs, shorter than the calyx, or without any. Seven 

 species have been discovered in Jamaica. 



With a single spike. 



1. M UTAH'S. CIIAXGFD. 



Cuhno triquetro nudo, spica stricta vblonga, terminali. Browne, p. 

 i-26. S. 4. 



Culm three-sided, naked; spike cylindrical, terminating. 



The 



