Baldwin on RottholUa, 357 



arisen from my having attended to it in its living state, and from 

 his not availing himself of the information which it would have 

 afforded me pleasure to have communicated, had he done me 

 the favour to have requested it, or informed me of his wish to 

 publish an account of plants thus obtained. He has called the 

 culm solid, leaves rather short, spikes cylindric, axillary, the 

 flowers and rachis entirely smooth, pedicel of the neutral flower 

 emarginate, outer valve of the hermaphrodite calyx acute, the 

 valves of the corolla obtxise, and the styles very short. I have 

 not been able to confirm the above characters, nor do 1 find 

 them even in the dried specimens. Besides, he has omitted to 

 inform us that the rachis is naked on one side. This is a most 

 important and prominent specific character, the omission of 

 which would necessarily lead to much doubt in identifying the 

 species. What he means by stating that the " outer valve of 

 the hermaphrodite flower is 3-valved," I cannot imagine, nor 

 do I comprehend what is intended by an " exterior auxiliary 

 valve, or neutral rudiment ; nearly the length of the calyx." 

 I have noticed in a single instance, connected laterally with the 

 corolla of the perfect flower, two very delicate, narrow, acute 

 pointed bodies, the length of the outer valve, and of the same 

 quality and appearance ; but these I have considered as acci- 

 dental, and cannot perceive any thing about them like neutral 

 rudiments. Nor can I consider the articulations of the rachis 

 as " deeply excavated." They are, as already stated, flat on 

 the inner side, and constitute from their^ea;t«oMs form, position, 

 and connexion with the pedicels of the neutral florets, an arch, 

 in which the perfect flowers are situated. 



Rottbollia ciliata.* 



Culmo erecto, tereti, glabro, ramoso : foliis angustissimis. 

 brevibus : spicis cylindricis super pedunculis teretibus longis. 

 solitariis termiualibusquae : calycis bivalvis, margine valva 

 exteriori ciliata: corolla bivalvis. 



* This is the specific name found in my Herbarium by Mr. JSTuUall, under 

 which it had been previously transmitted to Mr. Elliott. Vid. J>iittfaWs JVorik 

 Jimerican Genera, v. I, p. 83, 



