icith descriptions of some new species. 179 



base with an obliquely truncate sheath, which is 1 — 2 inches long,) 

 erect, eight inches to two feet or more high, often without spikes, 

 pale green, sharply triangular, the sides rather concave, with 

 many furrows. Spikes three lines to an inch long, about a line 

 wide, lanceolate or linear, acute, scarcely wider tlian the culms. 

 Scales, three to nine, about four lines long, lanceolate, rather ob- 

 tuse, pale green, many ribbed, thin, with a white membranous edge, 

 becoming pale brown when the fruit is ripe. Nuts about a line long, 

 obovate, rather sharply triangular, reticulate, pale brown. Style 

 longer than the scales, three-cleft at tip, tapering from its shrinking 

 persistent base, which is about one third as wide as the nut. Bris- 

 tles about six, nearly twice as long as the nut, strong, retrorsely his- 

 pid. From the crown of the root arises a whorl of numerous very 

 fine capillary abortive stems, a foot or more long, green, and floating 

 in the water, in a radiant manner, around the erect stems. 



Grows in shallow water on the borders of ponds and in ditches. 

 At Pondicherry j)ond, Jefferson, N. H., Dr. Robbins, July, 1829. At 

 Cook's pond, and other ponds in Plymouth, Mass., and in ditches at 

 Manchester, Mass, July and September, 1839. 



This interesting species is probably not rare, but it easily escapes 

 notice, especially the floating capillary stems, which 1 observed for 

 the first time at Plymouth, in July. The plant is frequently left dry 

 in the autumn, when of course the capillary stems disappear. This 

 is probably the species which Dc. Torrey mentions in his Cyperacese, 

 Annals of New York Lyceum, Vol. III., p. 314, received by him in 

 an immature state, from Benjamin D. Greene, Esq. 



Galium Littelh'i. 



Descr. — Root perennial, being a portion of the old stem; with slen- 

 der, blackish fibres at the joints. Stem quadrangular, with pale an- 

 gles, smooth, 5 — 7 inches high, with a ?e\v long, spreading branches, 

 sometimes nearly simple. Leaves four in a whorl, large, 5 — 12 

 lines long by 3 — 8 lines broad, round oval, round obovate, or round- 

 ish, very obtuse, with a minute point, smooth, excc])! a few scattered 

 white pointed hairs, margin ciliate with the same hairs. Branches 

 few-flowered. Flowers, two or three together, on pedicels radiating 

 from the same point, the main peduncle 1 — 2 inches long, the pedicels 

 3 — 8 lines. Petals four, white, smooth, ovate, acute. Divisions of the 

 fruit roundish, covered with very long whitish hairs, which are curved 

 and blackish at the points. Flowers in July. 



I found this species in moist, springy ground, in the woods on the 

 side of the White Mountains, in 1826; and I have received young 

 S|)ccimens of the same from Dr. Charles Pickering, without flower 

 or fruit, collected before that time by the late Henry Litde, M. D. 

 Mr. Tuckerman has lately found it on the Mansfield mountain, Ver- 

 mont. 



Erythrae^a Pickering!"!. 



Descr. — Root of moderate size, branching below, whitish, apparently 

 annual. Stem erect, six to twelve inches high, dichotomously branch- 

 ing from the base or middle. Branches strict, and nearly erect, sev- 

 eral inches long, stem and branches angular, and almost alated by 



