26 Rhodora [FEBRUARY 
base, but excluding the style) and 0.8 mm. wide, while in the more 
southern var. paniculata the achene is 2 by 1.5 mm. and much more 
umbonate. In the southern plant, moreover, the spikelet is usually 
1-fruited, in the northern plant 2-3-fruited, as long ago noted by 
Kunth (Enum. ii. 296 (1837)) in describing the southern form as R. 
glomerata var. robustior. This difference in size and shape of achenes, 
which runs with great constancy through a series of more than 115 
collections of the two plants, in combination with other differences in 
size of plant, breadth of leaf, looseness of inflorescence, and number 
of achenes in the spikelet fully confirms the specific distinctness of 
the two plants. 
Both the specimen from Kalm in the Linnaean Herbarium, which 
has recently been re-examined for me through the kindness of Mr. B. 
Dayton Jackson, and the plant of Clayton (no. 585) on which the 
Gronovian citation is based, belong to the large-fruited southern plant 
which was named Rhynchospora paniculata by Gray in 1835, and has 
of late years been treated as a variety of R. glomerata. It will now 
be necessary to restrict the name RyNCHOSPORA GLOMERATA (L.) Vahl, 
Enum. ii. 234 (1805), to the large-fruited plant, Gray’s R. paniculata, 
which as shown above deserves specific recognition. This species 
seems to have no noteworthy variations. 
The first name which can be taken up for the more northern-ranging 
species which has passed as typical R. glomerata seems to be Schoenus 
capitellatus Michx. Fl. i. 36 (1803). Michaux’s specimens were long 
ago identified by Dr. Gray (mss. notes in Gray Herb.) as “a state of 
R. glomerata,— from which the description is mostly drawn,— and a 
young R. Elliottii” (= R. schoenoides (Ell.) Wood). Wishing to 
secure more precise information as to these specimens, I sent speci- 
mens of R. glomerata (i. e., the plant so called in our manuals), R. 
paniculata, R. schoenoides (Curtiss 6625), and R. axillaris to Dr. H. 
Lecomte, director of the Paris Herbarium, with the request that they 
be compared with the material in the herbarium of Michaux. His 
assistant, M. Gadaceau, has kindly sent me the following notes on the 
material referred to Schoenus capitellatus in the herbaria of Michaux 
and of Drake del Castillo. 
“1. Herbiers du Museum. Deux feuilles d’herbier. L’une com- 
prend, comme l'indiquent les étiquettes au crayon signées A. Gray 
qui y sont jointes deux formes: Rhynchospora glomerata Vahl, R. 
Elliottii A. Gray. D'autre offre quatre beaux échantillons du Rhyn- 
