1906] Fernald, New or little known Cyperaceae 181 



SOME NEW OR LITTLE KNOWN CYPERACEAE OF 

 EASTERN NORTH AMERICA. 



■ ■:. . M. L. Fernald. 



. .■•• i •• . (Continued from page 167.) 



Carex setacea Dewey, var. ambigua (Barratt), n. comb.^ C- 

 vulpinoidea, 'var. ambigua Barratt according to Boott, 111. iii. 125, t. 

 406 (1862). C. xantJwcarpa Bicknell, Bull. Torr. Bot. Club, xxiii. 22 

 (1896). 



This plant was beautifully illustrated by Francis Boott from Con- 

 necticut specimens and there can be no question from the plate and 

 notes of the identity of Barratt's C. vulpinoidea, var. ambigua with 

 Mr. Bicknell's C xanthocarpa. An abundant series of material in 

 the herbarium of Chester Dewey of his own C. setacea and of Sartwell's 

 C. scabrior shows that while the best C setacea (including scabrior) 

 has ordinarily dull brown or drab lanceolate or lance-ovate perigynia 

 tapering gradually to the serrulate beak, many specimens pass very 

 definitely either in color or in the outline of the perigynia to a commoner 

 plant which in its best development has the broad-ovate to orbicular 

 l^erigynia abruptly short-beaked and often golden-brown in color, 

 the latter character suggesting the name .xanthocarpa. The transi- 

 tions between these two extremes are so numerous that it seems to the 

 writer that they are best treated as phases of one plant rather than 

 as distinct species. 



Carex Harperi, n. sp. Similar to C. leptalea Wahl. : the capillary 

 culms 2.5 to 7 dm. long; the more crowded spike with strongly over- 

 lapping linear-oblong perigynia (4 to 5 mm. long): the acuminate 

 scales whitish: the achenes puncticulate, barely lustrous, sharply 

 trigonous. — Georgia, springv place in swamp of Rocky Comfort 

 Creek, near Louisville, Jefferson County, April 9, 1904 {R. M. Harper, 

 no. 2109): Florida, without locality {Chapman); bogs and swamps, 

 Apalachicola {Chapman in Biltmore Herb. no. 271b): Alabama, 

 Gateswood, Mav 1, 1903 {S. M. Tracy, no. 8656): Mississippi, 

 Coopolis, April 24, 1898 {S. M. Tracy, no. 4122): Louisiana, without 

 locality (Hale): Texas, without locality (Wright). 



C. leptalea is a common plant of northern cold swamps and bogs, 

 extending form Newfoundland to British Columbia, south to Penn- 

 sylvania, the Great Lakes and Missouri, and in the mountains to 



