248 Rhodora [OCTOBER 
the time, a few specimens were prepared by the writer and the plant 
was laid aside for future study. The material was over-mature, with 
an inclination to shell; but the small oblong fruits were so unlike 
those of any known Carex of the Æøngatae (to which group the plant 
seemed to have affinity) that it was recently described by the writer 
as a unique species, Carex elachycarpa.' 
Subsequent trips to Fort Fairfield were too early or too late in the 
season for the local sedge to be found in good condition, until in 
early July, 1902, Messrs. J. Franklin Collins, Emile F. Williams and 
the writer spent a week at Fort Fairfield. Among the important 
objects of the first afternoon's excursion was, naturally, a visit to the 
original station of Carex elachycarpa. ‘There, in the rain, we searched 
the seepy shore where Miss Cook had first called attention to the 
plant, and although we crept on hands and knees amongst the 
abundant Z»zg/ochim palustris, Calamagrostis neglecta, and Juncus 
alpinus, the only plant found resembling the little-known Carex elachy- 
carpa was a tall slender and immature state of Carex interior. This 
result was of course most discouraging and it even led us against 
our own convictions to wonder if, after all, the material from which 
Carex elachycarpa had been described could have been an aberrant 
state of Carex interior. With this unsatisfactory ending of our first 
afternoon's work we returned to the hotel; but early next morning 
we visited a similar seepy and sandy spot on the north bank of the 
river. There almost immediately our discouragement was banished, 
for, mingled with Carex interior, Triglochin maritima, and Juncus 
balticus, was the wiry plant with the rigid spikes and character- 
istic little oblong subterete fruits of Carex e/achycarpa. Abundant 
material in various stages of development was secured, and the 
remainder of the morning devoted to further exploration of the north 
bank of the river. 
In the afternoon while Mr. Williams and the writer were putting 
up the morning’s collection, Mr. Collins amused himself by studying 
the structure of the rediscovered Carex elachycarpa. ‘This diversion, 
quite innocent in its motive, soon resulted in the investigator asking 
seriously “Is this a Carex after all?” An improvised dissecting ` 
microscope was soon constructed by fastening a Coddington lens on 
the blade of a partially open knife, and a series of dissections of the 
! Proc. Am. Acad. xxxvii. 492, figs. 133, 134 (1902). 
