North American Cyperaced. 311 



scabrous under an ordinary lens, but exhibiting minute wrinkles when 

 highly magnified. Tubercle distinct, whitish, minute. 



Hab. Georgia, Le Vonte ! ; Middle Florida, Dr, Chap- 

 man!; East Florida, Mr. Ware! 



l<i. ElEOCHARIS MELANOCARPAi 



tDulm compressed, sulcate ; spike oblong or cylindrical- 

 oblong ; scales ovate, obtuse, membranaceous ; bristles 3 — 4, 

 as long as the nut, slender ; nut somewhat turbinate, obtusely 

 triangular, (blackish) smooth ; tubercle broad, triangular, flat, 

 with a short point in the centre. 



Scirpus melanocarpus, Balclw. MSS. ! 



Culms cespitose, 12 — 18 inches long, almost filiform, but strong and 

 wiry, distinctly sulcate, clothed with truncate sheaths at the base. Spike 

 4 — 6 lines long, obtuse, many-flowered. Scales scarious on the margin, 

 rufescent, Avith a yellowish midrib, the lowest broader and empty. 

 Bristles commonly 3, one on each side of the nut, which they nearly 

 equal in length, excluding the tubercle; they are very slender, of a dark 

 purple colour, and retrorsely scabrous. Stamens 3. Style 3-cleft about 

 half-way down. Nut half a line long, thick and obscurely 3-sided, ap- 

 pearing (without the tubercle) truncate at the surrimitv Off a brownish 

 black colour, smooth and shining. Tubercle very short and dilated ; the 

 margin thickened and projecting over the top of the nut, tlie centre pro- 

 duced into a short triangular point* 



Hab. " Pine barrens, generally not far from streams of 

 water — near Savannah, Georgia," Dr. Baldwin! — May and 

 June. 



Obs. This well-marked species differs from any other of 

 the genus Eleocharis, in its black turbinate nut, crowned with 

 the large " spreading triangular tubercle. On account of its 

 slender bristles, trifid style, triangular nut, and membranaceous 

 scales, I have placed it in the section Scirpidium, but it 

 might with propriety be formed into a distinct subgenus. 



Vol. hi. ~ 40 



