186 ,,,., ,,:, . ,_ 1 Rhodora ,, • .,■. [September 



THE PERIANTH OF RYNTHCISPORA CAPH.LACEA VAR. 



LEVISETA. 



■ ; . ■ ..... , ,-. /• . . 1. .. • . .. .•. . • ..V .. 



...■ .: ■.. ■ >. , . • , E. J. Hill. ,. . ., -j ,:,..,^ i.,,,-. : 



In Rhodora for July, 1906, p. 1.30, there is a statement in Prof. 

 Fernald's article on some Cyperaceac that does not agree with my 

 experience with Rynchospora capillarca var. Icviseta. Mentioning 

 Cyperaceac without bristles it states: "In a few regions, the Kennebec 

 Valley, Maine, Lake County, Indiana, etc., Rynchospora capillacea 

 consistently lacks the perianth and is var. leviseta Hill." Reference 

 is also made to a previous article in Rhodora iii. 250 (1901), where 

 the statement occurs: "In Rynchoapora capillacea var. Icvh^eta the 

 reduced bristles lack the barbellate character found in otherwise 

 undistinguishal)le spikes." Never having noticed this lack, or yeduc- 

 tion of perianth I was a little surprised. Although I had examined 

 a great many specimens at various times in order if possible to find 

 some with barbed bristles, the absence or reduction of the perianth 

 had never been remarked in plants collected about Lake Michigan. 

 To see if I had overlooked the matter, after reading the article I went 

 over my collections, taking various sj^ikelets from different sheets to 

 see how they fared in this respect. They had been carefully scruti- 

 nized at the time of collecting for smoothness of bristles. 



My collections from Lake County, Ind., are six, three from Pine, 

 the original locality, made in 1875, 1870 and 1880; two from Whiting, 

 made in 1880 and 1881, and one from Edgemoor, 1881. The area 

 it frequents here has not proved to be large, the extremes about six 

 miles apart. North of Chicago, in Lake County, 111., I have made 

 three collections, two at Wauconda, made in 1898 and 1903, and one 

 from Waukegan, 1905. I have a single plant found with the barbel- 

 late form at lirownstown on Grand Traverse Bay, ]\Iichigan. All the 

 stations are less than a mile from Lake Michigan except ^Vauconda 

 about seventeen miles west of Waukegan, where the plant grows by 

 Bangs Lake, which is tributary to Fox River, and therefore in the 

 basin of the Mississippi. These comprise all the stations where I 

 have seen it. They mostly show myriads of examples, since the j)lants 

 usually grow in dense masses. But in those which lie west of Lake 

 Michigan I have not yet found a case with barbed bristles. Having 



