﻿ON THE BOTANY OF JAPAN. 417 



American V. viride (reproduced in Oregon as V. Eschscholtzii) is probably in Japan also, 

 since Middendorff gathered it on the Okotsk coast. 



Lambert's Aletris Japonica was met with by Mr. Wright only upon Katonasima and 

 the Loo Choo Islands ; it is a close congener of our two species of the Atlantic United 

 States, but has more grass-like leaves, and pinkish flowers. 



Juncacece. The Luzuht of Japan, and Juncus ejfusus, are species found all round the 

 northern hemisphere. Juncus xiphioides belongs to Japan and the western coast of 

 North America. 



In passing, we may note the absence from Japan of Xi/ris, and especially of Erio- 

 caidon, — two types (otherwise mostly tropical) which have wandered northward only 

 along our Atlantic coast, even to Canada, and in some unusual way (probably by the 

 Gulf Stream) contributed one species (E. septangulare) to the western shores of the 

 British Islands. 



Ci/peracea:. There is a new Eleocharis,* resembling E. palustris, but with larger and 

 more compressed achenia, crowned by a very large, cellular-spongy, cap-shaped tubercle, 

 closely applied to the summit of the achenium by a concave base ; the hypogynous 

 setae delicate and fragile, or in many flowers apparently obsolete. It should be com- 

 pared with Steudel's E. mitracarpa, from Persia, the tubercle of which is said to be 

 squamose and minutely hispid. The only other plants of this order requiring notice 

 are the Carices, which, like those of Williams and Morrow's collection, have been ex- 

 amined by Dr. Boott, who sums them up as follows : — "I have seen thirty-seven spe- 

 cies of Carex from Japan, of which twenty are peculiar to that country, and seventeen 

 common to other countries, viz. three to Europe (^C. precox, poly rrhiza, pilulif era) ; '\ 

 two to North America (rostrata and stipaia) ; five to Europe and North America 

 (remota, steUulata, muricata, vesicaria, and Jil if onnis); one to Northeastern Asia and 

 the northwestern coast of America (^macrocephala) ; one to Kamtschatka {Jongerostrata); 

 two to India (Doniana and Royleana); one to Australia (Gaudichaudiana); one to 

 Australia and Chili ! (jnanila) ; and one to the Sandwich Islands ( Wahuensis). Peculiar 

 to Japan, C. nana, anomala, picta, incisa, transversa, papulosa, parcifiora, confcrtiflora, 

 micans, Ringgoldiana, rigeiis, villosa, dispalata, pisiformis, Morrowi, excisa, conica, 



* Eleocharis pileata (sp. nov.) : caespitosa ; rliizomatibus filiforinibus vix repentibus, culmis vaginis et 

 spica E. palustris ; glumis ovatis obtusis rufis margine leviter scariosis ; stylo alte bifido ; tuberculo celluloso- 

 subcroso albo mitriformi vel pileiformi obtuso la3vi achenium obovato-lenticulare obtusangulum laeve pallidum 

 longitudine ac latitudine subtequante ; setis 4 - C fragilibus nunc achenio a;quilongis nunc evanidi;?. Ilakodadi, 

 in fresh-water marshes. 



t All likewise in Kamtschatka, &c., fide Trevii-anus in Ledeb. Flora Rossica. 



