Whirlpool and Rapids below the Falls of Niagara. 25 
Ruyncnospora Kwnieskerntt: culmo trigono gracili; spicis 
numerosis in glomerulis 4-6 distantibus aggregatis; nuce levi 
obovata substipitata setas 6 retrorsum hispidas eequante tuberculo 
triangulari subduplo longiore. 
ab. In pinetis Nov-Cesar., detexit cl. P. D. Knieskern, M.D. 
Culm 12-18 inches high, branching from the base, slender, 
nearly smooth: leaves short and narrow. Spikes small, seta- 
ceously bracteate, forming small distant clusters throughout the 
entire length of the culm, each subtended by a long foliaceous 
bract. Nut obovate, lenticular, attenuate at the base. ‘Tubercle 
compressed, broad at the base, about half the length of the nut. 
In its characters this species is closely allied to R. capillacea, 
Torr., from which, however, it is readily distinguished by the 
shorter and more numerous aggregated spikes, and the much 
smaller nut and short bristles. In general appearance it more 
nearly approaches to R. gracilenta, Gray, but the nut is quite 
different, and the bristles are not antrorsely hispid as in that spe- 
cies. I learn from Dr. Knieskern, that it grows exclusively on 
banks of iron ore in the Pine barrens of New Jersey. He 
distributed it, as new, under the name of R. Grayana, which 
name being preoccupied by Kunth for the R. Elliottii, Gr. Mon. 
Rhynch., 1 dedicate it to the discoverer. 
Arr. V.—Observations on the Whirlpool, and on the Rapids, 
below the Falls of Niagara; designed by illustrations to ac- 
count for the origin of both; by R. Bakewett, New Haven. 
Ox my return to England soon after visiting the Falls of Niag- 
ara in the year 1829, I published in Loudon’s Magazine a short 
Sive action of water, that the falls were once at Queenston. | 
ring the six days that I remained there, I made several sketches 
the falls and the surrounding scenery, little expecting at the 
time that I should ever see the cataract again. I returned to 
America to reside in the summer of 1830, and in the autumn of 
which I had made seventeen years before. After a lapse of so 
many years, I was sensibly impressed with the change, which 
had taken place, particularly in. the Canada fall. ‘The waters 
receded from the American side of the Horse-shoe fall towards 
the centre; parts of the precipice were bare which in 1827 were 
entirely hid by the descending flood. ‘The water which then 
Sxrconp Sertzs, Vol. 1V, No. 10.—July, 1847. 4 
