IRbobora 



JOURNAL OF 



THE NEW ENGLAND BOTANICAL CLUB 



Vol. 6 April, 1904 No. 64 



THE NORTH AMERICAN ALLIES OF SCIRPUS 

 LACUSTRIS. 



Agnes Chase. 



(Plates 52 and 53.) 



In the hope of clearing up confusion in regard to our Great Bul- 

 rush the accompanying plates have been prepared and the following 

 descriptions drawn up after study of the specimens of this group in 

 the National and Gray Herbaria, herbaria of the New England Botan- 

 ical Club and of the Field Columbian Museum, and in a few private 

 herbaria. 



Scirptis validus was clearl/ described by Vahl and this name was 

 taken up by the earlier American botanists. From the brief descrip- 

 tion of S. lacustris in Species Plantarum (p. 48) it is impossible to 

 decide which species of the group Linnaeus had in mind, but the 

 type locality is given as " Europae," and the descriptions of S. lacus- 

 tris L. by Kunth (Enum. PI. 2 : 164), Vahl (Enum. PI. 2 : 268), and 

 Reichenbach (Icones Fl. Germ. 7:41, plate 106) clearly describe the 

 specimens with 3-cleft styles from Scandinavia, Germany and France 

 found in the above herbaria. This European S. lacustris is a plant 

 with spikelets usually in capitate clusters ; smooth scales (the excur- 

 rent tip of the midrib alone being scabrous) one-fourth or more longer 

 than the achene ; style 3-cleft; achene 1.7-1.8 by 3 mm., triquetrous, 

 the ventral facet broadest and the dorsal angle obtuse ; and the invol- 

 ucral bract flat or plano-convex, the margins scabrous. The Euro- 

 pean bulrush with 2-cleft style, described as S. Tabernaeniontani 

 Gmel. Fl. Bad. i:ioi, and figured in Reichenbach's Icones (7:41, 

 plate 107), is, to judge from descriptions, plate and numerous speci- 



