92 Rhodora [May 
Washington County, May, 1880, F. L. Harvey, no. 14. TExas: 
no locality given, Berlandier, no. 1942. 
This is the common form on the coastal area all the way from Nova 
Scotia southward and again in the lower Mississippi Valley. The 
coarse habit, pale sheaths, loose inflorescence, and pale flowers with 
stiff perianth which is rarely longer than the capsule and usually 
appressed to it, serve ordinarily to distinguish this variety from others. 
Forms with the inflorescence comparatively dense are not rare, how- 
ever, in which case it is difficult to separate them from var. compactus, 
except by the larger, firmer and more appressed perianth. In eastern 
and central Pennsylvania there is a form in all respects like typical 
var. solutus except that the perianth-segments are less appressed, thus 
suggesting (according to the length of the sepals) var. Pylaei on the 
one hand and a loosely flowered var. compactus on the other. In form 
and texture the perianth-segments are as in var. solutus and for the 
present the plant is treated as an extreme form of that variety. 
Var. Pylaei (Laharpe) n. comb. J. Pylaei Laharpe, Mem. Soc. 
d'Hist. Nat. Par. iii. 119 (1827).— Plants varying from slender to 
stout, 3-11 dm. high: culms varying from coarse and soft to slender, 
rigid and wiry, and from conspicuously few-sulcate to obscurely many- 
striate under the inflorescence, 1-3.5 mm. in diameter at the top of the 
sheaths: sheaths rather loose, reddish-purple and often very dark at 
base; the uppermost membranous toward the summit, varying from 
purplish to greenish-drab, 4—10(-19) em. long: inv olucral leaf 1-3 dm. 
long: inflorescence from dense to very loose, 1.5-8 cm. in diameter: 
perianth 3—4.2 mm. long, rather stiff and rigid: sepals somewhat 
spreading, distinctly exceeding the petals, the tips long-subulate; the 
back very broad, green, bordered with very slender often nearly obso- 
lete light-brown bands and broad scarious margins; petals similar but 
shorter and less subulate-tipped: capsule olive-brown, rounded at the 
tip, distinctly shorter than the sepals, not apparently : Typi- 
cal specimens examined: NEWFOUNDLAND: Salmonier River, August 
26, 1894, Robinson & Schrenk, no. 131. QvxnkEc: Little Métis, July 
27, 1906, J. Fowler. New Brunswick: Bocabec, July 19, 1900, 
J. Fowler; Scovil’s Brook, Westfield, August 8, 1909, Fernald & W ieg- 
and. Maine: Fort Fairfield, August 10, 1909, Fernald & Wiegand; 
Perry, August 15, 1909, Fernald & Wiegand; Foxcroft, August 26, 
1896, Fernald; Orono, July 16, 1890, Fernald; Rumford, July 4, 
1890, J. C. Parlin; Wilson's Mills, Magalloway River, July 29, 1903, 
E. F. Williams. New Hampsuire: White Mountains, July 28, 1853, 
Wm. Boott; Jaffrey, July 16, 1897, B. L. Robinson, no. 301. VER- 
mont: Middlebury, July 13, 1878, E. Brainerd; Manchester, July 3, 
1898, M. A. Day, no. 301. MASSACHUSETTS : Spot Pond, Middlesex 
County, July 10, 1853, Wm. Boott; Reading, July 12, 1882, W.N. 
