86 . Rhodora [May 
J. Leersii Marsson, Fl. Neu-Vorpomm. u. Rügen, 451 (1869). J. 
conglomeratus Robinson & Fernald in Gray, Manual, ed. 7, 273 
(1907), perhaps of L. Sp. Pl. 326 (1753) in part; also cf other authors. 
— Plants tall and rather stout, 6-10 dm. high, pale green; the stems 
easily compressible, faintly striate below, conspicuously 12-15-suleate 
under the inflorescence, 1.5-2.5 mm. in diameter at the top of the 
sheaths; the latter rather loose, thin, light-brown below; the upper- 
most greenish above and 8-17 em. long: involucral leaf 4-18 em. long: 
inflorescence in American plants very congested (1-2.7 cm. in diam- 
eter): perianth 1.7-2.7 mm. long, soft, when dry wrinkled and curved; 
midrib of the color of the stem, bordered by pale brown bands and 
with narrow scarious margins: capsule about equaling the perianth, 
stramineous below, more or less tinged with deep-brown above, obtuse 
-or retuse and varying from blunt to apiculate.— Typical specimens 
examined: NEWFOUNDLAND: near Placentia Junction, August 11, 
1894, Robinson & Schrenk, Whitbourne, August 16, 1894, Robinson & 
Schrenk, no. 133. Connecticut: in a wet bog, Franklin, July 20- 
23. 1907, R. W. Woodward. New Jersey: Egg Harbor, Atlantic 
Co., June 21, 1908, E. B. Bartram. (Also in Europe.) Specimens 
credited to Nova Scotia in the 7th edition of Gray's Manual prove to 
be immature material of some other variety. 
Recent authors both in this country and abroad have been inclined 
to treat this variety as a distinct species on the basis of its retuse cap- 
sules and coarsely striate stems. Neither of these characters, however, 
is distinctive since the capsules of var. brunneus are often retuse, and 
the culms of var. Pylaei are frequently as coarsely striate. In our 
opinion, the variety in question does not differ more from the other 
varieties than they do from each other. "Phe practice of treating it as 
a distinct species, therefore, seems scarcely warranted. ‘The synonymy 
of var. conglomeratus is much confused. In the Species Plantarum 
Linnaeus included a J. conglomeratus, based upon earlier descriptions 
which, on careful analysis, apply (at least in part) as well or even 
better to var. compactus. Moreover, according to Buchenan, speci- 
mens labeled J. conglomeratus in the Linnean Herbarium are not of 
our variety; and other early authors employing the name conglomer- 
atus failed to distinguish between the striate-culmed plant and var. 
compactus. The first unequivocal application of the name to the form 
with prominently striate culms, so far as we have been able to deter- 
mine, was made by Engelmann in the 5th edition of Gray's Mariual. 
'The variety is readily distinguished by the very small flowers borne in 
a condensed head, rather soft perianth, strongly striate or sulcate 
culms and pale sheaths. 
