242 North Amencuu Cyptracea. 



teenth part of the phaenogamous vegetal ion. The Ust in the 

 present monograph is increased lo 326, but the proportion which 

 they bear to the whole number of phasnogamous plants remains 

 about the same, owing to the great additions which have been 

 made to our Flora within a few years past. 



It affords me great pleasure to record the labours of some 

 of our own botanists in this field. The late excellent Mr. 

 Elliott, in his work modestly entided A Sketch of the Botany 

 of South Carolina and Georgia (1817 — 1824,) accurately de- 

 scribed a great number of Cyperacea3, among which are many 

 new species. Prof. Dewey's Caricography, published in Silli- 

 man's Journal, (vol. 7 — 30, 1824 — 1836,) is an exceedingly 

 valuable account of our native species of Carex. The first 

 volume of the Annals of the Lyceum of Natural History con- 

 tains an Analytical table of North American Carices, communi- 

 cated in 1823 by the late lamented Dr. L. D. von Schweinitz, in 

 which the essential characters of the species known at that time are 

 given in a perspicuous manner, and several new species are in- 

 dicated, most of which have been subsequently confirmed. The 

 Monograph of North American Carices by Mr. Schweinitz and 

 myself, was published the following year in the second volume 

 of the same work. The monograph of North American 

 Rhynchosporae, published in the present volume of the Annals 

 of the Lyceum, and the volumes of North American Gramineae 

 and Cyperaceae by my esteemed friend Dr. Gray, are most 

 valuable contributions to the Flora of this country. In the dif- 

 ficult genus Rhynchospora the author has doubled the list of in- 

 digenous species before recorded, and has described them with 

 such clearness that hereafter their determination will be compa- 

 ratively easy. 



A paper, entitled "Cyperaceae novag," &c. by Dr. C. A. 

 Meyer, (published in the Memoires presentes a I'acad. St. Pe- 

 tersb. 1830) contains excellent descriptions and figures of seve- 

 ral Cyperaceae, mostly from Russian America, many of which 

 have been identified by means of a suite of specimens from 

 Sitcha and Unalaschka, communicated by M. Bongard of the 

 St. Petersburgh Imperial Academy. 



