M o N o G R A r H nf Norlh Aiiieruan C v r erace je. 

 By John Torre y. 



Read August 8th, 1836. 



The natural family Cyperace^ comprehends at least I6OD 

 Recorded species, and about 100 genera. It belongs lo the 

 great class Eridogense, and the cohort Glumacese. On the one 

 hand it is nearly related to Graminece, arid on the other to 

 Restiacece. From the former it is distinguished by its solid, 

 and mostly angular culms, entire leaf-sheaths, and embryo 

 partly included in the albumen ; and from the latter by its nuca- 

 mentaceous fruit, entire leaf-sheaths, and the position of the 

 embryo. The genera of this order were very imperfectly cha- 

 racterized until the appearance of Dr. Brown's incomparable 

 Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandioe in 1810, in which work a 

 great number of Cyperaceous genera are described with the 

 precision for Vvhich this author is so celebrated. Before the 

 publication of that work, Richard, in Persoon's Synopsis, (1805) 

 described several new genera of Cyperaceae, and characterized 

 ihem in a perspicuous manner. Vahl, also, in his Enumeratio 

 Plantarum, vol. 2. (1806) revised that part of the order belong- 

 ing to Triandria Monogynia of the sexual systerri, and described 

 some new genera. In 1819, Lestiboudois published his Essai 

 sur la Famille des Cyperacees, in which he gave a good ac- 

 count of its organography, and a brief description of all the ge- 

 nera, including several new ones. He appears to have adopted 

 the views of Palisot de Beauvois, which he frequently quotes. 

 It is much to be regretted that the work on Cyperaceae pro- 

 mised by that celebrated agrostographer has never been publish- 

 ed. A memoir containing some valuable observations on this 

 order was communicated to the Institute of France, by M* 

 Kunth, and printed in the Annales du Museum (1809). 



Vol. Ill- n 



