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 144' • BOTANY OJ:' CONGO.

species discovered in Madagascar by M. dii Petit Thouai's, and said to resemble C. Papyrus excei)t in the vaginas of the partial umbels J

Among the sj)ecies of Cyperaceas in the collection, having the most extensive range, are Cyperiis articnJatus, which is 459 common to America, India, and Egypt ; Fidrena 11111- hellala anel Eleocharis cajnfaia,^ both of which have been found in America, India, and New Holland ; and C/jperifs lifjiflaris indigenous to other parts of Africa and to America.

JI//pcBJi/ljfum arf/cnteiiw, a species established by Vahl from specimens of India and Senegal, and since observed in equinoctial America by Baron Humboldt, is also in the collection.

The name Hypalyptum, under which 1 have formerly described the genus that includes //. aryenteum^ was adop- ted from Yahl, Avithout inquiry into its origin. It is pro- bably, however, a corruption of Hypalytrurn ."^ by wdiich i\I. Richard, as he himself assures me, chiefly intended another genus, with apparently similar characters, though a very different habit, and one of whose species is described by Vahl in Hypaelyptum ; his character being so constructed as to include both genera. M. Kunth has lately published H. aryenteim under the uame of Hypselytrum ;" but in adopting the generic character given in the ' Prodronuis Florge Novae HollandiEc/ he has, in fact, excluded the plants that M. Richard more particularly meant to refer to that genus. It is therefore necessary, in order to avoid further confusion, to give a new uame to Hypgelyptum as I have proposed to limit it, which may be LijjocarpJia, derived from the whole of its squamse being deciduous.

In describing Lij^ocaipha (under the nam^ of Hypaelyp- tum) in the work referred to, I have endeavoured to establish the analogy of its structure to that of Kyllinya ; the inner or upper squamse being in both genera opposite to the inferior squama, or anterior and posterior, with re- lation to the axis of the spikelet : while the squamae of

^ Uncyc. Method. Botan. vol. 7, ;;. 270.

2 Frodr. Flor. Nov. Iloll. 1,;). 225. Scirpus capitaius Willd. sp. pL 1, ;;. 294, exclus. syn. Gronovii. ^ Prodr. Flor. Nov. Iloll. \, p. 219.

4 Fersoon Si/n. Flant 1, j>- 70. ^ Nov. Gen. et Sp. Flaut 1, p. 21S.

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