Type Specimens of Rhynchospora (Cyperaceae) in an Unstudied Collection of William Baldwin

Abstract

William Baldwin, M.D., conducted extensive studies of the Cyperaceae early in the nineteenth century, but most of his botanical knowledge was left in his herbarium or in manuscript form when he died at the age of 41. This collection of 18 specimens ofRhynchospora was donated by Baldwin to the American Philosophical Society shortly before his death in 1819. Later these collections were transferred to the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia where they now reside. The plants are from southeastern Georgia and eastern Florida. Eight of the specimens represent duplicate type material of species described by Stephen Elliott (1816) in hisSketch of the Botany of South-Carolina and Georgia, and by Asa Gray (1835) in hisMonograph of the North American species of Rhynchospora. Commentary on these eight specimens is presented in this paper.