[From the Bulletin of the Torrby Botanical Club, 48: 3 2 7~343- 4 March, 1922.] 



LIBRA RT 



NEW V< 



Studies of West Indian plants— X 



Nathaniel Lord Britton 



60. UNDESCRIBED SPECIES FROM TRINIDAD 



Eleocharis savannarum sp. nov. 



Rootstocks very slender, elongated; culms filiform, weak, 

 smooth, 6-15 cm. long, the upper sheath membranous, its mouth 

 oblique; spikelet ovoid, 3-4 mm. long; scales oblong or ovate- 

 oblong, about 2 mm. long, obtuse, nearly white with a greenish 

 midvein; achene trigonous, obovoid, about 0.5 mm. long, truncate; 

 tubercle low, nearly flat, apiculate; bristles none. 



Moist hole on the O'Meara Savanna, Trinidad {Britton 2491). 



Eleocharis oropuchensis sp. nov. 



Roots fibrous, finely filiform; culms finely filiform, densely 

 tufted, weak, 5 cm. long or less, the upper sheath membranous, 

 oblique at the summit. Spikelets terminating culms, and sessile 

 at the base of the plant; compressed, 2-3 mm. long, ovate, about 6- 

 flowered ; their scales ovate-oblong, pale or brown with pale mar- 

 gins and keel, subdistichous, blunt, 1.5 mm. long; style 3-cleft; 

 achene trigonous, smooth, pale, about 0.5 mm. long, about as long 

 as the 3 or 4 bristles; tubercle conic, one fourth as long as the 

 achene. 



In mud in sunny, grassy situations, Trinidad; type from Oro- 

 puche Lagoon (Britton, Hazen and Freeman 1155, March 29, 1920). 



I am indebted to Mr. N. E. Brown for comparing this little 

 plant with West Indian and South American species in the Kew 

 Herbarium, where he was unable to match it. He remarks upon 

 its unusual character of having both terminal and basal spikelets, 

 and compares it with Chaetocyperus Jamesoni Steud. from Guaya- 

 quil, Ecuador (Jameson 36Q), pointing out important differences, 

 however. 



Rynchospora aripoensis sp. nov. 



Perennial by short horizontal rootstocks; culms filiform, tufted, 

 smooth, erect, 2-4 dm. high, longer than the filiform leaves. 

 Spikelets few, 2 mm. long, ovoid, acute, i-fruited, sessile in 1 or 2 

 small clusters subtended by a filiform bract 1-3 cm. long; scales 



327 



