590 TRANS. OP THE ACAD. OF SCIENCE. 



other tribes of modern Indians inhabiting the southwestern 

 parts of the United States, were in the habit of flattening the 

 skull by artificial compression; and if it were certainly ascer- 

 tained that this mound was different from those that are at- 

 tributable to the modern Indians, and belonged to the class 

 of ancient mounds of the Mississippi Valley, these skulls would 

 be highly interesting, as going to establish the fact that this 

 practice prevailed in North America, as well as in Peru, at a 

 period of great antiquity. 



Farther Additions to the Revision of the Genus Juncus. 



(Continued from p. 498.) 



1 /3. Juncus Cooperi, n. sp. rhizomate . . . foliis .... caule 

 (fere bipedali) robusto rigido; spatha rigida paniculam com- 

 positam strictam vix aequante ; glomerulis 2-5-floris ; sepalis 

 demum induratis nervosis, exterioribus convexis lanceolatis 

 subulato-acutatis, interioribus ovato-lanceolatis mucronatis 

 paulo brevioribus stamina 6 vix superantibus ; antheris, late 

 linearibus, filamentis brevissimis ; capsula e basi ovata acutata 

 vix ano-ulata indurata (virescente) paulo exserta ; seminibus 

 majoribus appendiculatis costato-reticulatis. 



Camp Cady, in the southern part of the State of California, 

 Dr. J. G. Cooper, 1861. — A single incomplete specimen, pre- 

 served in the botanical collection of the Geological Survey of 

 California, discovered by the zealous naturalist whose name it 

 bears, proves this plant to be closely allied to and intermedi- 

 ate between J. acutus and J. maritimus, and therefore most 

 probably leaf-bearing. The panicle is 3 inches long and 1 

 inch wide, green even at full maturity ; flowers with the fruit 

 3 lines long, anthers 1$ lmes in length; seeds with white 

 rhaphe and broad white appendages } line long; marked with 

 irregular longitudinal reticulation. J. acutus (also found at 

 San°Dieo-o by Dr. Cooper) has smaller flowers of different 

 shape, and a deep brown almost globose capsule, and smaller 

 differently marked seeds ; J. maritimus, not yet found in 

 North America, has all the parts much smaller, an ovate mu- 

 cronate capsule, smaller seeds with short appendages. 



J. acuminatus, var. diftusissimus, exactly corresponding 

 with the Texan plant, found by the late Dr. Clapp near New 

 Albany, Indiana, is preserved in lib. Torrey. 



