1900] Fernald, — Some northeastern species of Scirpus 15 
SOME NORTHEASTERN SPECIES OF SCIRPUS. 
M. L. FERNALD. 
IN a recent preliminary discussion’ of the **wool-grasses ' 
shown that in the northeastern states there were two very distinct 
specific types which had long been confused as Scirpus Eriophorum. 
Since that time a large amount of material has been furnished by Dr. 
K. M. Wiegand, of Cornell University, showing a third species which is 
abundant in western New York, and during the past year field observa- 
tions of the plants were carried on by the writer in southwestern New 
Hampshire, and a very exhaustive study of the group in Vermont has 
been made by President Ezra Brainerd. Specimens and critical notes 
“have also been prepared by Mr. O. A. Farwell in Michigan, by Mr. C. 
H. Bissell in Connecticut, and by several others who have kindly placed 
at the disposal of the writer the results of their studies. In this more 
extended examination of the ** wool-grasses " special aid has been ren- 
dered .by the discriminating observations and criticisms of President 
Brainerd of Middlebury College. 
From these more detailed studies it seems probable that, in the 
desire to avoid too radical a treatment of the plants, the northern 
Scirpus cyperinus, Kunth, was erroneously called a variety of the south- 
ern S. Eriophorum, Michx. ‘The latter species, when mature, is of a 
pale terra-cotta brown, having a decidedly reddish tinge; and the 
sheaths of its involucre and involucels are for the most part of a 
deeper shade of the same color. The rays of the umbel are mostly 
ascending, but the numerous raylets are slender and drooping. ‘The 
spikelets are usually in 3’s, the middle one sessile, the two outer on 
more or less elongated pedicels. ‘This plant, characterized by its terra- 
cotta color and slender-pedicelled spikes, is abundant on the southern 
coast of the United States extending north into New Jersey. South- 
ward it matures in late July and August, but in Virginia its ** wool” 
becomes conspicuous in September. 
The common northern plant, Scirpus cyperinus, which in the former 
treatment was called a variety of S. Eriophorum, seems now, from a 
study of material from many localities, to be so clearly distinct from 
the southern plant as to warrant its recognition as a species. When 
H 
it was 
: Contrib. Gray Herb. n.s. XV. (Proc. Am. Acad. xxxiv. 498). See also synopsis 
in RHODORA, i. 137. 
