130 Rhodora , . [July 



Ottawa Valley, and he writes of it "What struck me particularly about 

 it was its early maturity, and its short wiry stems which had a tendency 

 to fall over. . . .The habitat I noted particularly as I was walking 

 around collecting other species when I was struck with the maturity 

 of this FJeocharis so early in the season, June 3rd." E. nitida is 

 nearest related to E. tenuis (Willd.) Sciuiltes, from dwarf specimens 

 of which it differs in the whitish not dark-girdled tips of the upper 

 sheaths, the narrow-margined smaller scales, the outer broad-mar- 

 gined scales of E. tenuut being 2 or 8 mm. long; the tiny sharp-angled 

 whitish achenes with minute papillae, the larger achenes of E. tenuis 

 being golden-yellow or orange-brown, becoming drab in age, obtuse- 

 angled, and conspicuously papillose-roughened; and the very minute 

 pointed tubercle. » 



Eleocharis in'tehmedi.\ (Muhl.) Schultes, var. Habereri, n. var. 

 Bristles absent or rudimentary.— New York, sandy shores of Oneida 

 Lake, Vienna, Oneida County, August 2 and 18, 1900 {J. V. Habere r, 

 no. 1149a). 



Of this plant Dr. Haberer wrote "All of this material has bristles 

 fugaceous or 7ione. Out of much material I find I have but 3 with 

 bristles .... It is somewhat curious that the plants within the influ- 

 ence of water — subject to inundation — are liable to be minus bristles." 

 This lack of bristles in certain species or varieties is frequent in Eleo- 

 chari.'i, Scirpus, and Rynchospora, all or essentially all plants of a lake- 

 or river-.system being constant in this character. Thus the now well- 

 known E. diandra Chas. Wright constantly lacks brisdes throughout 

 the length of the Connecticut Valley, about Oneida Lake and in the 

 Androscoggin Valley. Nearly all the E. Engelmanni about Winter 

 Pond in Winchester, Massachusetts, belongs to the bristleless var. 

 detonsa Gray. E. palustris, var. calva (Torr.) Gray, so far as known 

 to the writer, is a very local plant, though material is often collected 

 at certain stations. All the Srirpu.t debilis about Lake Massapoag 

 in Sharon, Massachu.setts, is var. Williamsii Fernald, without bristles; 

 and in a few regions — the Kennebec Valley, Maine, Lake County, 

 Indiana, vie. — Rynchosporn capillacea consistently lacks the perianth, 

 and is var. Icviseta Hill.^ 



' For further comments on this point .see Rhodora, iii. 250 C1901). 

 {To be continued.) 



