in Corsica, in the “ cultures d’Erba longa,” Oct. 1867. Professor Parla- 
tore, however, says that in southern Italy this plant is found near. the — 
sea in “ luoghi erbosi o arenose ;’* implying, I imagine, that it grows in 
uncultivated ground. 
According to the same authority, Cyp. melanorhizus is found at Mentone, 
Pegli, Ostia, Naples, Sicily, and the adjacent islands, and in Egypt. To 
this we may add, judging from specimens in the Kew herbarium, Bagdad 
(collected by Noé, and communicated by H. G. Reichenbach), Crete 
(Sieber), and Lenkoran, in Persia, on the south-western shore of the 
Caspian Sea (Dr. Fischer). 
Two plants’ of great interest and rarity, belonging to the Cyperus 
(sedge) family have lately been discovered by my father and myself, in 
the marshy ground about the mouth of the Roya, at Ventimiglia. These 
are Cyperus globosus, All., and Fimbrystilis annua, R. et 8. Of the former, 
hitherto only known to grow near Nice, Verona, in southern Spain, 
Arabia, and eastern India, we have repeatedly gathered large quantities, 
but of the latter only a single specimen, brought in by chance along with 
a mass of Cyp. globosus, has been discovered. F. annua is considered a 
doubtful native in Europe by Parlatore, who assigns the following actual 
distribution for the species: tropical America (whence he thinks it may 
have been introduced), Switzerland, the Italian Tyrol, Venetia, Piedmont, 
Lombardy, Tuscany, at Smyrna, and in the island of Sara, in the 
Caspian Sea. When balancing the probabilities as to the introduction 
by human agency of this species into Europe, we must remember the 
fact, directly favouring the supposition, that Euphorbia Preslii has cer- 
tainly been thus imported from North America, and is now found growing 
as a weed at Ventimiglia, close to the very spot where F. annua was 
discovered. On the other hand, if F#. annua is a native of an island in 
the Caspian, any argument as to its being foreign to Europe, drawn from 
the distance between the European and American habitats, falls to the 
ground. 
I have satisfied myself that Cyp. globosus may easily be distinguished 
- from Cyp. flavescens, Linn., with which it grows mixed, by its ripe 
achenes. Those of Cyp. flavescens are nearly black and subglobose, and 
may roughly be compared with minute shot ; while those of Cyp. globosus 
are brown, subelliptic, laterally conipressed and more nearly resemble 
minute grains of corn convex on either side. 
EXPLANATION oF PLate XCVII.—Fig. 1, an entire spikelet, magnified. 
Fig. 2, side view of a glume, magnified. Fig. 3, pistil, magnified. Figs. 
4, 5, and 6, the tuber in different stages of development, magnified. 
* Fi. Ital, ii. 33. 
