20 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 
from one genus to another, but a varietal adjective is not nec- 
essarily to be retained when a plant is raised in rank. Duplicate 
hames, such as “‘Sassafras, sassafras,’’ are not to be permitted, 
and the famous dictum, ‘‘once a synonym always a synonyim,”’ 
is rejected. 
It will be seen that the Congress decisively rejected the 
pecuhar rules accepted and so zealously applied by a very 
respectable body of American botanists. It seems to have been 
of the opinion that stability was not obtainable by sacrificing 
practical convenience to a pedantic construction of the rule 
of priority. Surely if it is to be achieved at all, it must be by 
conformity to the decisions of the international authority. The 
choice lies between conformity and provincialism. _ §. B. P. 
A Preliminary Synopsis of the Southern Cali- 
fornia Cyperacee. XI. 
BY S. B. PARISH 
(Continued from page 133, Vol. 4) 
Subgenus J] Vignea, Koch, Syl. Fl. Germ. 784. 
Spikes sessile, more or less aggregated in heads, panicled, 
or rarely solitary. Staminate flowers few, borne at the summit 
or at the base of the spikes, or rarely intermingled with the 
pistillate flowers, or spikes unisexual, or the plants dioecious. 
Perigynia plano-convex in cross section. Stigmas always 2. 
Achenes plano-conyex or lenticular.* 
*T take this opportunity to acknowledge the kind assistance of Dr. 
Theodore Holm, in the determination of some difficult specimens of this 
subgenvs, and also my indebtedness to Mrs. Charlotte M. Wilder for the 
drawings from which Plates 20 and 23 were reproduced. 
KEY TOP VAGINAS 
A. Staminate flowers at the summit of the spikes. 
Heads elongated, interrupted below, paniculately decompound. 
Perigynia firm, margined to the base......20. C. chrysoleuca 
Perigynia spongiose at base, margined above. 
JRermcanaial TMOAveleSS “45555 kobsesob socessossue 21. C. alma 
Perigynia nerved on the outer face...........22. C. vitrea 
Heads ovoid to ovoid-oblone. 
Spikes greenish, the lower compound; rhizomes brown. 
23. C. Douglasii 
