1906] Fernald, Variations of Carex paupercula 75 



comparatively young plants those whitish organs extend conspic- 

 uously each side of the narrow scales. 



One other character which, from the material at hand, seems to sep- 

 arate the Fuegian and Patagonian plant from its boreal ally is in the 

 leaf-sheath. In C. magellanica the pale nerveless band which extends 

 down the sheath from the auricle is rather firm, opaque, and strongly 

 dark-dotted. In C. irrigua it is thin and membranous, translucent, 

 and faintly or obscurely dotted. 



In view of these well marked characters of the plants it seems that 

 the true Carex magellanica of the Patagonian and Fuegian region is 

 a species quite as distinct from the extreme boreal C. irrigua as are its 

 other allies, C. laxa, C. limosa, and C. rariftora. The boreal plant, 

 C. irrigua, however, presents in North America three well marked 

 variations which it is the final purpose of this paper to discuss. This 

 fact, that not all the North American specimens are identical with 

 those of polar and alpine Europe, was noticed as early as 1841 by 

 Drejer who said: "Specimina americana majora et vegetiora sunt, 

 quum ulla europaea, quae vidi"^; and this statement was seconded 

 by Francis Boott^ who added that the culm of the North American 

 plant is frequently scabrous, but who, nevertheless, preferred to regard 

 this taller often scabrous North American plant as the "typical" C. 

 magellanica because it was "most generally known." 



A study of the abundant material of Carex irrigua in the Gray Her- 

 barium and the Herbarium of the New England Botanical Club shows 

 that in the colder parts of Canada and the Eastern States the common 

 phase of the plant is quite like the European in its comparatively low 

 stature, castaneous scales, and ordinarily glabrous culms. South- 

 ward and in the Great I>ake region, however, the common form dif- 

 fers in the characters mentioned by Drejer and by Boott; and with 

 its tendency to greater stature and often scabrous culms it shows less 

 color in the scales, these having green central portions and pale brown 

 to straw-colored margins. In none of these points is the plant thor- 

 oughly constant, but as a fairly marked American variety it seems 

 •advisable to separate it from the true C. irrigua which in Europe 

 rarely if ever tends to such an extreme. 



Another tendency of the species is the plant which was discovered 

 by Michaux at Lake Mistassini and which abounds in alpine bogs of 



» Drejer, Revis. 51 (1841). 2 Boott, 111. ii. 80 (1860). 



