Botanical Novelties — St, John 
159 
grass, Sl John 23,661. The Munro collection 
had once been determined as Paspalidium 
caespitosum C. E. Hubbard. 
CYPERACEAE 
Eleocharis calvallott. var. australis (Nees) 
comb. nov. 
Fig. 2 
E. palustris (L.) R. & S. var. australis Nees, 
Acad. Caes. Leop. Nat. Cur., Nov. Act. 19, 
Suppl. 1: 96, 1843 (as E. palustris R. Br. 
jd Australis Nees). 
Scirpus nudissimus Steud., Soc. Linn, de Nor- 
mandie, Bull. II, 9: 280, 1875, synon. nov. 
E. palustris sensu Hbd., El. Haw^. Is. 474, 1888, 
and of C. N. Forbes, B. P. Bishop Mus., 
Occ. Papers 7(5): 48, 1920; not of (L.) 
R. & S. 
E. calva, sensu Fernald & Brackett as to Oahu 
plant, Rhodora 31: 68-70, 1929; not of 
Torr. 
E. macrostachya sensu Svenson as to Oahu 
plants, Rhodora 41: 57, 1939; not of Britt. 
NOM. VERN.: "kohekohe.” 
Niihau: Loe Lake, 2 miles N. of Puuwai, 
marshy border of temporary flood-water lake, 
10 ft. alt., plants up to 12 dm. tall, basal 
sheaths red, St. John 23,398. 
Hillebrand (1888: 474) apparently did not 
encounter this plant in the Hawaiian Islands, 
but included it doubtfully in his Flora of the 
Hawaiian Islands, upon the report of Meyen’s 
collection by Kunth (1843: 96). It seems 
strange that Hillebrand did not find this 
species. Quite a number of collections of it 
are now known and some of them were 
previous to Hillebrand’s time in the Islands 
(1850-71). The collections are as follows: 
1825: James Macrae (Herb. Lindley) 
1831: Maio, in Oahu insula, F. J. F. 
Meyen (Vienna Herb.) 
1842: Oahu, U. S. Exploring Expedition 
(Gray Herb.) 
1920: Oahu, Kaimuki, creeping in the 
mud, March 26, 1916, C. N. Forbes 
2360.0 (Bishop Mus.) 
1927: Oahu, 0. Degener 9,002 (N. Y.) 
1949: Niihau, Puuwai, H. St. John 23,398 
(Bishop Mus.) 
1950: Niihau, "tohetohe,” September, 
Henry Judd (Bishop Mus.) 
In 1929 Fernald and Brackett (p. 68) identi- 
fied this with Eleocharis calva Torr., occurring 
from Quebec to Alberta and Washington, 
south to Florida, Oklahoma, and Mexico, 
and also in Manchuria. It is close to this 
species because of the close, red sheaths, the 
linear-lanceoloid spikes with a single basal 
sterile scale. This primarily American species 
has the plant loosely stoloniferous to slightly 
caespitose; culms 1-6.5 dm. tall, 0.5-1. 5 mm. 
in diameter; lower and median fertile scales 
1.8-3 mm. long, oblong to ovate, reddish to 
pale brown; anthers 1.3-1. 7 mm. long; 
achenes 1-1.4 mm. long, 0.7-1 mm. broad; 
style base 0.2-0. 4 mm. broad at base, conical; 
perianth wanting or of 1-4 delicate bristles 
usually equaling or slightly exceeding the 
style base. The local E. calva var. australis 
has the plant short stoloniferous but densely 
caespitose in habit; culms 1-12 dm. tall, 
1-3 mm. in diameter; lower and median 
fertile scales 3-4 mm. long, lance-ovate, cas- 
taneous between the hyaline margin and the 
pale midrib; anther 2 mm. long; achenes 1.7- 
1.9 mm. long, 1.2-1. 3 mm. wide; style base 
0.4-0. 6 mm. wide, deltoid-ovoid; perianth of 
4 stout bristles, retrorse barbellate and nearly 
or fully as long as the achene. The Hawaiian 
plant seems clearly separable from E. calva. 
In 1939 Svenson in his monograph reduced 
Scirpus nudissimus Steud. He called it a "nomen 
subnudum” (Rhodora 41: 57, 1939) but there 
is no such designation in our present Inter- 
national Code. There is the term "nomen 
nudum" for names published without any 
description. Steudel’s description was as 
follows: 
"5. Le S. nudissimus, Steud., se compose 
d’une tige terminee par un epi grHe, d’ou son 
nom specifique; mais Steudel ajoute: nisi 
forte Eleocharis palustris, var?" This original 
publication included two items of descrip- 
