M o MO G R A P H of Norkh American C y p e r ac e .«, 
By John T o r r e y. 
Read August 8th, 1S36. 
The natural tamily CyperaceyE comprehends at least 160O 
recorded species, and about 100 genera. It belongs to the 
great class Endogenae, and the cohort Glumaceae. On the one 
hand it is nearly related to Gramineae, and on the other to 
Restiaceas. From the former it is distinguished by its solid, 
and mostly angular culms, entire leaf-sheaths, and embrj'o 
partly included in the albumen ; and from the latter by its nuca- 
mentaceous fruit, entire leaf-sheaths, and the position of the 
embryo. The genera of this order were very imperfectly cha- 
racterized until the appearance of Dr^ Brown's incomparable 
Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiaj in 1810, in which work a 
great number of Cyperaceous genera are described with the 
precision for wliich this author is so celebrated. Before the 
pubhcation of that work, Richard, in Persoon's Synopsis, (1805) 
described several new genera of Cyperaceae, and characterized 
them in a perspicuous manner. Yahl, also, in his Enumeratio 
Plantarum, vol. 2. (1806) revised that part of the order belong- 
ing to Triandria Monogynia of the sexual system, and described 
some new genera. In 1819., Lestiboudois published his Essai 
sur la Famille des Cyperacees, in which he gave a good ac- 
count of its organography, and a brief description of all the ge- 
nera, including several new ones. He appears to have adopted 
the views of Palisot de Beauvois, which he frequently quotes. 
It is much to be regretted that the work on Cyperaceae pro- 
mised by that celebrated agrostographer has never been publish- 
ed. A memoir containina: some valuable observations on this 
order was communicated to the Institute of France, by M. 
■Kunth, and printed in the Annales du Museum (1809). 
Vol III, 31 
