154 Rhodora [AUGUST 
extreme appears quite distinct but which clearly passes into typical S. 
capillaris. This is 
STENOPHYLLUS CAPILLARIS (L.) Britton, var. cryptostachys, n. var., 
spiculis 12-56-floris 4-10 mm. longis plerumque nigrescentibus vel 
pullis sessilibusque; inflorescentiis basilaribus confertis sessilibus. 
Spikelets 12-56-flowered, 4-10 mm. long, commonly blackish or 
dark-brown and sessile (or only 1 or 2 on short rays): basal inflores- 
cences crowded, closely sessile-— Missouri and Virginia north to Ohio 
and New England. Tyre: sandy woods, Monteer, Missouri, October 
9, 1910, B. F. Bush, no. 6398c (in Gray Herb.). 
CAREX ECHINATA Murr. Prodr. Fl. Goth. 76 (1770); Britten, Journ. 
Bot. xlv. 163 (1907); Briq. Prodr. Fl. Corse, i. 199 (1910); not Murr. 
herb. nor Kükenthal and others. C. Leersii Willd. Fl. Berol. Prodr. 
28 (1787). C. stellulata Good. Trans. Linn. Soc. ii. 144 (1794).— The 
nomenclature of this species has been most distressingly confused and 
it is apparent that many botanists have not seen or interpreted in 
their full significance the above cited notes by Messrs. James Britten 
and Jean Briquet. Murray, in publishing C. echinata, gave abso- 
lutely no original description but cited a description of Haller’s and a 
plate in Flora Danica, both of which are unquestionably the plant 
which was later called C. Leersii Willd. or C. stellulata Good. Murray’s 
treatment was as follows: “Carex echinata mii f. Car. spicis ternis 
echinatis glumis lanceolatis, capsulae mucrone simplici HALL. Hist. n. 
1366. Orp. Dan T. 284.” As distinctly pointed out by James Britten 
(l. c.), and again by Briquet (l. c.), the fact, that Murray had speci- 
mens as C. echinata which are not the species described by him under 
that name, in no way invalidates the use of the name for the plant 
actually described. 
DECODON VERTICILLATUS (L.) Ell., var. LAEVIGATUS Torr. & Gray, 
Fl. i. 483 (1840), described as “glabrous; leaves bright green” as 
contrasted with var. pubescens Torr. & Gray, l. c. with “stem and 
lower surface of the leaves more or less tomentose-pubescent,” is a 
well marked geographic variety. Var. pubescens shows a strong 
inclination to follow the coastal plain and related areas, while var. 
laevigatus is rare or local in the coastal plain region but more general 
inland. As represented in the Gray Herbarium the two varieties have 
the following ranges. 
Var. PUBESCENS.— Florida to Maine, chiefly on the coastal plain 
or on the outwash plains of southern New England, extending inland 
to northwestern Georgia, and in New England to Hampden County, 
