1910] Fernald and Wiegand,— Juncus effusus 87 
Var. DECIPIENS Buchenau in Engler’s Bot. Jahrb. xii. 229 (1890).— 
Plants slender, 4-7 dm. high: culms rather wiry, finely and incon- 
spicuously many-striate, 1-2 (rarely 3) mm. in diameter at the top of 
the sheaths: sheaths rather firm but not coriaceous, dark reddish- 
brown at base; the uppermost either dark-brown or greenish toward 
the summit, mostly 8-12 cm. long: involucral leaf 10-25 cm. long: 
inflorescence small, varying from rather dense to somewhat lax, 
1.5-3 (rarely 4.5) em. in diameter: perianth 2.5-2.9 mm. long, soft. 
somewhat curved and wrinkled when dry, more or less spreading, 
either concolorous or the scarious margins more or less irregularly 
suffused with reddish-purple: capsule short and rather turgid, equaling 
or slightly shorter than the perianth, olive-brown, often suffused with 
reddish-purple; summit very obtuse, not apiculate. — Typical speci- 
mens examined: NEWFOUNDLAND: Placentia, August 24, 1894, 
Robinson & Sehrenk. | QvEnEkc: Vicinity of Cap à L'Aigle, August 18, 
1905, J. Macoun, no. 68,858. Onrarto: Plevna, July 28, 1902. 
J. Fowler; Cache Lake, Algonquin Park, July 11, 1900, J. Macoun, 
no. 21,997. Maine: Southport, July 31, 1894, Fernald. New 
HampsHire: East Andover, August 13, 1903, M. A. Day; Jaffrey, 
July 16, 1897, B. L. Robinson, no. 302. MASSACHUSETTS: Ipswich, 
Oakes. (Also in eastern Asia). 
Differs from var. Pylaei in the small flowers with short soft perianth, 
and from var. solutus in the more slender culms, darker more slender 
and commonly shorter sheaths, usually smaller inflorescence, and 
smaller flowers with softer perianth. This variety was described by 
Buchenau from Japanese material and credited by him to Japan only. 
It was distinguished only on the basis of its obtuse, not retuse, and less- 
completely 3-celled capsule. Judging from the conditions in other 
varleties, however, these are characters of comparatively slight impor- 
tance, and are found in much of our American material. Nevertheless, 
all of the East Asian material in the Gray Herbarium is of one kind, 
unlike anything we have seen except the plants above cited from 
Newfoundland, eastern Canada and New England. It seems reason- 
ably certain therefore that Buchenau had in hand plants of our present 
variety when describing var. decipiens. 
Var. exiguus, n. var., caulibus tenuibus 4—6 dm. altis 1-1.5 mm. 
diametro, fortasse pallide viridibus firmis lentis in statu sicco sub- 
tiliter et aequaliter suleatis; cataphyllis basilariis subcoriaceis fulvis 
basi rufescentibus, supremis 9-11 em. longis; inflorescentia laxe 
fastigiata 4—5.5 cm. longa; bractea infima 4-10 em. longa; perianthiis 
2 mm. longis, sepalis et petalis mollibus in statu sicco marcidis curva- 
tis, dorso viridescentibus vel fulvis, lateraliter fulvis, marginibus 
angustis scariosis; capsulis perianthium vix aequantibus fulvo-oliva- 
ceis non apiculatis. 
