138 PROCEEDINGS OP THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



ally described. I have seen no specimens in which the spadix was 

 so very much shorter than the spathe as it is shown in Hook. Exot. 

 Fl. t. 182, nor any in which its upper part was naked. The spathe 

 is convolute either to the right or left. The rootstock is short and 

 very thick, densely covered below with stout fleshy roots, and it is 

 without acridity or ueai'ly so. 



Peltandka ALBA, Raf. This species was based upon the Calla 

 sagitlifolia of Michaux, the Caladium glaucum of Elliott, which has 

 more recently been referred by Dr. Chapman (following Kunth's 

 suggestion) to the Xanthosoma sagittifoUum of the West Indies. It 

 is clearly a Peltandra, though differing strikingly from P. undulata 

 in the dilated and expanded white ovate blade of the spathe and in 

 the reddish fruit. The more slender spadix is only half the length 

 of the spathe, and its pistillate portion about as long as the sterile. 

 The ovules appear to be always solitary. As in the last, the stami- 

 nodia are distinct, but more nearly equalling the ovary. This is the 

 P. Virginica of Schott, as described and figured by him, though in 

 the figure the spathe is represented only partially expanded. It has 

 been imperfectly understood by Dr. Engler, who in his Aracece has 

 confused it to some extent with the last, especially in the synonymy. 

 It is confined to the southern coast, from Wilmington, N. C, to 

 Florida, and is a pretty species, well worthy of cultivation. The 

 generic characters as given by Bentham & Hooker and in Engler's 

 revision require modification, as also in the Manual. 



RuppiA occiDENTALis. Stcms Comparatively stout: sheaths 

 elongated, 1 to 2 inches long or more : flowers as in R. maritima : 

 fruit unknown. — In saline ponds near Kamloops, British Columbia ; 

 Prof. J. Macoun, June, 1889. The specimens are only in flower, 

 but are remarkably unlike all forms of R. maritima in the length of 

 the sheathing base of the leaf. 



Eleocharis equisetoides, Torr. This species is referred by 

 Boeckeler to the E. Asian E. plnntaginea, from which it differs in the 

 transversely linear reticulation of the nutlet. It also resembles the 

 tropical American E. interstincta, R. Br., but has the nodes of 

 the culm less crowded, the rather larger and more turgid nutlets less 

 abruptly narrowed to the base, and the bristles shorter, very delicate 

 and scarcely barbed. In E. interstincta the bristles are very stout 

 and rigid, strongly barbed, and nearly a half longer than the nutlet. 



Paspalum Elliottii, Watson in Gray's Manual, 6 ed., p. 629. 

 The Digitaria pospalodes of Michaux is identified with what is known 

 as Paspalum distichum, Linn., and with this must evidently go as 



