200 Rhodora [October 



SOME NEW OR LITTLE KNOWN CYPERACEAE OF 

 EASTERN NORTH AMERICA. 



M. L. Fernald. 



(Continued from page 184-) 



Carex flava and Oederi. The forms of the polymorphou.s 

 Carex flava group seem never to have been clearly differentiated in 

 American literature. The most satisfactory discussion of the group 

 is that of Professor Bailey; ^ but primarily through his attempt to 

 keep apart as distinct varieties American forms which in their details 

 agree with well known European extremes, his treatment is not entirely 

 satisfactory. Although Professor Bailey maintains that the American 

 forms differ from the European, a comparison of many specimens 

 from both continents fails to convince the writer that there are many 

 distinctively American tendencies in the species. That the plant in 

 America and in Europe should present parallel and undistinguishable 

 variations is in no way surprising. Typical C. flava is admitted 

 to occur in America as well as in Eurojie, and several other tendencies 

 of the grt)up seem to occur on both continents. As understood by 

 the writer the plants of eastern America may be treated as follows. 



* Beak as long as the body of the perigynium, often becoming bent or retrorse, 

 at least at maturity. 



+- Staminate spike sessile or very^ short-stalked, sometimes pistillate at tip: 

 pistillate spikes mostly contiguous, the lower sometimes remote. 



++ Fruitmg spikes 9 to 12 mm. thick, .short -oblong or globose; beaks spread- 

 ing in all directions: scales dark and usually conspicuous. 

 =: Perigynia ovoid, abruptly beaked. 



C. FLAVA L. Sp. i. 975 (1753); Bailey, Mem. Torr. Bot. Club, i. 2S 

 (1889). — Newfoundland and Anticosti to Saskatchewan and Alberta, 

 south to Connecticut, New York, Ohio, Michigan and Montana! 

 Europe. 



= — Perigynia subulate or conic-subulate, gradually tapering to the beak. 



Var. gaspensis, n. var. Resembling C. flava: the perigynia at first 

 subulate and ascending, later becoming conic-subulate' and wide 

 spreading.— A characteristic extreme in the southern part of the 

 Gasp^> Peninsula, Quebec: cool gravelly banks of Bonaventure River, 

 August 8, 1904 {CoUins, Fernald & Pease); wet calcareous marl,. 

 Goose Lake, New Richmond, July 17, 1905 (Collins & Fernald). 



I Mem. Torr. Bot. Club, i 28 (1889). 



