212 PALM^E. Erythea. 



pericarp, broadly excavated albumen and dorsal embryo, and the leaf-segments entire or nearly 

 so, not filiferous on the margins. Wendland refers our species to the Mexican genus Brahea, 

 which has much smaller flowers, unequal filaments and comparatively large acute anthers, united 

 carpels, oblong fruit with thin pericarp, the albumen excavated vertically nearly to the apex and 

 embryo dorsal, and the segments of the leaves barely cleft and not fibrous on the margins. In 

 the mythology of the Greeks, Erythea was one of the Hesperides, daughters of Evening or the 

 West, " who dwelt on an island of the ocean, on the western edge of the world, and guarded a 

 garden with golden apples." 



1. E. edulis, Watson. The slender trunk sometimes 30 feet high and 15 inches 

 or more in diameter, covered with a thick corky cracked bark : the fibrous sheathing 

 bases of the leaves at length glabrous : petioles stout, over an inch broad at the sum- 

 mit, plano-convex with acute luiarrued margins, somewhat fibrous-pubescent or gla- 

 brate above ; ligule 2 or 3 inches long, very densely silky-tomentose ; blade 3 feet 

 long, the (70 or 80) folds at first tomentose, cleft to the middle (less deeply on the 

 under side), lacerate at the apex and somewhat fibrous on the edges : panicle 4 feet 

 long, much branched, densely tomentose, becoming glabrate : flowers numerous, in 

 clusters of 3 or 4, the corolla (1^ lines long) twice longer than the calyx ; segments 

 of the corolla lanceolate : carpels glabrous : fruit over an inch in diameter, the thick 

 pulp sweet and edible : seed 7 to 9 lines in diameter, slightly flattened on the inner 

 side, with smooth and grayish, thin but very hard and bony epidermis : embryo 

 near the base on the dorsal side. Brahea edulis, Wendland ; Watson, Proc. Arner. 

 Acad. xi. 120, 146. 



On Guadalupe Island (Dr. E. Palmer), and becoming introduced into cultivation. Each tree 

 bears one to four panicles, blossoming late in March ; the fruit-clusters are said to weigh 40 or 

 50 pounds. 



2. E. armata, Watson. Taller and more graceful than the last (40 feet high) : 

 leaves glaucous, the petioles narrower, more concave above, and margined with numer- 

 ous stout more or less hooked slightly spreading spines ; folds (30 to 40) split nearly 

 to the middle on both edges, scarcely lacerate at the apex and but slightly filiferous : 

 branches of the panicle more slender : carpels densely tomentose : fruit smaller (9 

 lines long), the seed half an inch in diameter : embryo at the base. Brahea (1) 

 armata, Watson, 1. c. 146. 



In the Big Canon of the Tantillas Mountains, Lower California, Dr. E. Palmer. The flowers 

 have not been collected. 



ORDER CXVIII. CYPERACE.SI. 



Sedgy or rush-like herbs, mostly perennial and rhizomatous, with triangular or 

 terete solid stems, and alternate mostly radical leaves with closed sheaths or leafless ; 

 spicate flowers perfect or unisexual, without perianth or with a series of hypogynous 

 bristles or scales in its place, solitary and sessile in the axils of imbricated glume- 

 like bracts (scales) ; stamens usually 2 or 3, hypogynous, with basifixed anthers ; 

 ovary 1 -celled, with an erect anatropous ovule and a 2 3-cleft style, in fruit a len- 

 ticular or more or less triangular akene, membranous, crustaceous or bony ; embryo 

 minute, lenticular or turgid, at the base of copious albumen. Spikelets of one to 

 many flowers in two or more ranks, solitary or clustered, or often in simple or com- 

 pound spikes or umbels or panicles, the inflorescence involucrate with usually leafy 

 bracts or naked. 



A very large order, distributed over the globe, especially abundant in the temperate and cooler 

 portions of the northern hemisphere, and usually found in wet or damp non-saline localities. It 

 includes 50 or 60 genera and probably 2,000 species, but is sparingly represented in California. 

 As compared with the Graminece the order, though so large, is unimportant, the coarse herbage 

 aTording little nutriment, and no species furnishing a grain of any value. 



