1904J Fernald, — Lists of New England Plants, — XJII 37 



stigmata sessilia vel subsessilia. Semina i mm. longa circa 0.2 mm. 

 diametro sigmoideo-fusiforma basi et apice albo-cauclata, caudis quam 

 nucleus fuScus ter brevioribiis, longitudinaliter circa 15-costata reticu- 

 lata. — Hab. in paludibus sphagnosis. Orono et Rangeley, Maine. 



Perennial, densely caespitose. The stiff erect culms 3-6 dm. high, 

 pale straw-color or yellow-green. Leaves mostly basal ; the sheaths 

 pale brown or pinkish, with membranous or almost scarious auricles ; 

 the blades very slender, firm, strongly involute, 1-2 dm. long. 

 Liflorescences usually much overtopped by the erect bracts, subdi- 

 chotomous, 2.5-9 cm. long, 1-4 cm. in diameter; tlie flowers mostly 

 secund and distinct along the strict suberect branches, rarely umbellu- 

 late. Flowers 4-5 nnn. long, pale straw-color, tiie lance-subulate 

 segments firm, with narrow membranous margins, subequal or the 

 inner slightly shorter. Stamens half as long as the perianth-segments ; 

 the linear anthers equalling the slender filaments. Capsule shorter 

 than the perianth, oblong, trigonous, truncate-emarginate ; the sides 

 flat or a little concave toward the tip; stigmas sessile or subsessile. 

 Seeds i mm. long, about 0.2 mm. thick, sigmoid-fusiform, white- 

 caudate at base and apex, the tails one-fourth as long as the brown 

 body, longitudinally about 15-ribbed, reticulate. — Mafnk, swamp 

 with/. Fascj'/ and /. tenuis, var. a7ithelatus, Orono, August 13, 1890, 

 luly 21, 1892 — no. 300, distributed as /. dichototnus, type {M. L. 

 Ffrnald)\ Rangeley, 1882 {Kate Fiithish). — This plant has long been 

 a perplexing one. At Orono, where it abounds in a dry sphagnum- 

 carpeted remnant of a larch- and alder-swamp, it is mixed with the 

 characteristic northern /. Vaseyi and /. tenuis, var. anthelatus, and 

 when first found it was very immature. From this immature material, 

 with its strongly involute firm leaves, the plant was referred by a stu- 

 dent of the genus to whom it was shown toV. dicJwtomus of the 

 southern coastal plain. Li 1892 excellent fruiting material was col- 

 lected, and without further examination placed with that of earlier date. 

 The plant seemed in some points so unlike/, dic/iotofnus that Dr. K. 

 M. Wiegand, when studying the group for his recent valuable .synopsis ^ 

 was unwilling to leave it with that species, but, as indicated on the 

 herbarium sheets and in a letter to the collector, he preferred to 

 consider it a doubtful form as nearly allied to his /. tenuis, var. 

 anthelains. Recently, in overhauling some specimens collected in 

 1882 by Miss Kate Furbish at the Rangeley Lakes, far above the level 

 in Maine of the coastal plain, the writer was surprised to find mixed 

 with good /. I'aseyi fruiting material of the plant which at Orono is 

 associated with /. Vaseyi and which now proves to be a species quite 

 unlike either / dicbotomus or /. tenuis. In both those species the 

 capsules are ovoid or obovoid, rounded to the mucronate tip, and with 

 rounded or convex sides ; the tiny oblong seeds (0.3-0.4 mm. long) are 

 bluntly apiculate; and the anthers are distinctly shorter than the tila- 



' Wiegaiul, liull. Torr. CI. xxvii (igoo) 511-527. 



