﻿Eleocharis melanocarpa a proliferous Plant. 



By E. J. Hill. 



(Plate 344.) 



In the summer of 1894 I found this plant in two localities of 

 northern Indiana in the region of the Great Lakes — Laporte and 

 Dune Park. The former station is about twenty miles from 

 Lake Michigan and the plants were growing in the sandy borders 

 of Pine Lake, one of the cluster of little lakes on which Laporte 

 is situated. The latter station is in the dune region by the shore 

 of Lake Michigan, where the plants occur plentifully in the damp 

 sandy margins of sloughs. Previous to that time it had been re- 

 ported only from the Atlantic coast, ranging from Massachusetts 

 to Florida. Aside from the interest it has in common with sev- 

 eral other plants which connect the flora of the dune region wi 

 that of the Atlantic coast, a new feature was added last summer 

 by the discovery of a proliferous habit among the plants at Dune 

 Park. In this respect it is associated with E. rostellata Torr. The 

 first that were seen were supposed to be this species, which is 

 known to grow in southern Michigan, the locality also being 

 within its geographical range, but I am not aware of its presence 

 here. The lack of fruit in the specimens first obtained was an 

 easy source of error, since the compressed stems are quite alike in 

 both. More careful sMr^m^ ^c ±u~ i„j „~ mo fm inner 



ith 



stems on the same root with the proliferous stems and these at 

 once showed the species to be E. melanocarpa Torr. The pecu- 

 liar achene makes it very easy to distinguish when the fruit is 

 mature. The tubercle is v<=™ K r ^A ^„a a^ ;«. n m ,Vrfinf edge 



rolled over and surrounding the top of the nut like a miniature 

 scroll. Torrey states it well in his original description : " Tubercle 

 very short and dilated, the margin thickened and projecting over 

 the top of the nut." * 



E. melanocarpa commonly grows in stools, several roots, with 



* Cyperaceae of North America, Ann. Lye. X. Y. 3 : 316. 1836 



(392) 



