72 DISTRIBUTION OF THREE SEDGES. 



to Bordeaux. Finally, I liave it collected as wild by Jeniier near 

 Seabrook, in Kent. It has maintained itself for a series of years in 

 most places where it has once been introduced. 



2. Pycreus tremulus C. B, Clarke (in Dur. & Scbinz, Consp. 

 Fl. Afr. V. 542) has been frequently collected and long known 

 (since Poiret's time) in Madagascar, Mauritius, and Bourbon. 

 I have lately received it from Mozambique, Uganda, and the 

 Central Congo (Hens. n. 358). It is ('i/penis chlorostachys Boeck. 



C. Koch described in Lhnma, xxi. (1848), 623, two new Cyperi, 

 viz. Cijpenis colchicm C. Koch and C. stacJn/ophnnis C. Koch, from 

 Mingrelia and Trebizond. These two species are one, viz. our 

 Pi/creus treundus. I for some time imagined that this was a 

 herbarium mixture ; but the plant appears to be truly collected 

 from the south of the Caspian to Colchis. Pi/creus tremulus is a 

 very "critical" species," it is true; but I think the Mascarene and 

 Mingrelian plants are identical. It increases the difficulty with me 

 that none of the allied species to P. tremulus inhabit Europe, West 

 Asia, or North Africa ; they inhabit America, Africa south of 

 Tropic of Cancer, South-east Asia, and Australia. I think the true 

 home of P. tremulus is certainly Mascarenia and Tropical Africa. 

 If, then, it is an introduced plant in Mingrelia, the wonder is how 

 it got introduced to such a place ; and still more that it should have 

 been able to establish itself there. 



3. Mariscus congestus Vahl [Enum. ii. 350), sub Cypero, is 

 abundant throughout the Cape Colonies, common in Temperate 

 Australia. It appears to have been introduced into European 

 botanic gardens at an early date ; I have seen many garden 

 examples. It is Cyperus Paramatta Martins (Cat. Hort. ErlaiKjen, 

 24) ; it is C. patulus Hort. Mouspel. (Spreng. Syst. i. 225, partly) ; 

 it is C. spectahilis Link, Hort. Berol. i. 318 ; ii. 321 ; Hort. Erfurt. 

 n. 346. (Cyperus spectahilis Boeck. is a totally different American 

 species.) Like many botanic garden plants, it has been 

 wrongly named, issued with wrong name, and redescribed under 

 a new name ; I have twenty synonyms for it. But, excluding the 

 numerous garden specimens, or possible escapes, this species is 

 frequently collected in remote localities. I have seen examples 

 collected in Anatolia, Macedonia, Italy, and Lake of Geneva ; and 

 it is reported from Transcaucasia, Byzantium, Coimbra, and 

 Potsdam. It is, I think, a species which is endowed with a 

 capacity for colonization. 



The books teem with unaccountable distributions: e.g. R/iyncho- 

 spora Drou-nii Eoem. & Sch., according to Boeckeler, inhabits 

 Brazil, Orinoco, New Holland, and Nepal ; while the closely-allied 

 Wiynchospora chinensis Nees & Meyen, according to Boeckeler, 

 inhabits China, Ceylon, and Sikkim up to 10,000 ft. elevation. 

 But these two species (and many allied ones) are hardly separable 

 from Itkynchospora ylauca Vahl. If the whole are treated as one 

 series, the distribution is "general"; and, if the series is sub- 

 divided on different characters from those relied upon by Boeckeler, 

 the anoaialies in the distribution disappear, 



