63 



The writer desires to acknowledge very gratefully the assistance 

 given him in the identification of some sedges and mosses by 

 Prof. Charles H. Peck, and Mr. Stewart Burnham. 

 University of North Carolina 



SHORTER NOTES 



A Yellow Flax from Jamaica, West Indies. — It was some- 

 what of a surprise to find specimens of a yellow-flowered flax — • 

 Cathartolinum — in a package of specimens recently collected in 

 a botanically little-known part of Jamaica. These specimens are 

 the first representatives of the genus Cathartolinum to be found 

 in the West Indies south of the Bahamas. 

 y^ Cathartolinum jamaicense Small, sp. nov. Plants perennial, 

 3 dm. tall or less; stem slender, glabrous, simple or with few 

 elongate branches: leaves nearly erect or appressed to the stem 

 and the branches, mostly 7-12 mm. long; the blades spatulate to 

 nearly linear, acute to short-acuminate, entire, eciliate, those of 

 the upper leaves sessile: stipular glands wanting: flowers in 

 interrupted, usually simple virgate spike-like racemes: sepals 

 about 3 mm. long, the outer lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, 

 acute or slightly acuminate, glandless, the inner elliptic or ovate- 

 elliptic, rather abruptly short-acuminate, often minutely glandu- 

 lar-toothed, the glands often deciduous: petals yellow, mostly 

 4.5-7. 5 mm. long, fugacious: staminodia wanting : anthers about 

 0.5 mm. long: capsules globose-ovoid, about 2.5 mm. long, about 

 equalling the sepals or slightly exceeding them. 



In damp grassy savannas, Kellits, Upper Clarendon, Jamaica. 

 Collected by William Harris, September 24, 1912, 11159. 



The closest relative of Cathartolinum jamaicense seems to be 

 C. floridanum. The simple virgate inflorescence and the smaller 

 calyx of C. jamaicense distinguishes it from C. floridanum. In 

 North American Flora this species should stand between Catharto- 

 Jinum floridanum and C. macrosepalum. 

 "" J. K. Small 



