1921] Fernald, — American Representatives of Scirpus eespitosus 23 



the highest of the southern Alleghenies, bogs of the Great Lake 

 States, and the mountains of Alberta and Washington, is essentially 

 uniform throughout its broad range in North America and agrees 

 with the plant of northern Asia and of northernmost and alpine 

 Europe. In Europe, however, there is another plant which differs 

 in some striking characters from the circumpolar form and which 

 in Great Britain and the lower regions of Scandinavia, Denmark, 

 France and Germany is known as 8. eespitosus. In the latter plant 

 the orifice of the upper sheath (at the base of the culm) is obliquely 

 elongate, commonly more than 3 mm. long, and scarious-margined ; 

 the castaneous or purple spikelets are 6-8 mm. long and 5-8-flowered ; 

 and the perianth-brist'es are usually upwardly barbellate. This is 

 the plant designated by Palla as Trichophorum germanicum, 1 and 

 taken up by Ascherson & Graebner as S. eespitosus, B. germanicus 

 (Palla) Aschers. & Graebn., 2 an entirely unnecessary combination 

 since as early as 1789 it had been designated as 8. eespitosus, /3. 

 nemorosus Roth. 3 It is well shown in the English Botany, t. 1029, 

 or in Syme's edition, x. t. 1590, in Flora Danica, xi. t. 1861 and in 

 Reichenbach's Icones Florae Germanicae, viii. t. 300, figure at left. 



The wide-ranging circumpolar and alpine plant, on the other 

 hand, has the orifice of the sheath about 1 mm. long and with a firm 

 border; the stramineous or merely somewhat pale-brown spikelets 

 2-6 mm. long and 2-4-flowered and the perianth-bristles smooth or 

 barely roughened. This is the plant designated by Palla as Trico- 

 phorum austriacum 1 and taken up by several European botanists as 

 Scirpus eespitosus, B. austriacus (Palla) Aschers. & Graebn. 5 



Linnaeus included both plants in the Species Plantarum, but the 

 "Habitat in Europae paludibus cespitosis sylvaticis" indicates that 

 he had primarily in mind the plant of the lower altitudes, i. e., S. 

 eespitosus, var. nemorosus Roth or Tricophorum germanicum Palla 

 = S. eespitosus, B. germanicus (Palla) Aschers. & Graebn. 



The circumpolar plant in some characters appears at first glance 

 to be specifically distinct but it shows no constant difference in the 

 fruit and some European plants, which in other characters are typical 

 *S. eespitosus, lack the barbs on the perianth-bristles. It is, therefore, 



1 Palla, Berichte Deutsch. Bot. Gesellsch. xv. 468 (1897). 



2 Aschers. & Graebn. Fl. Nordostd. Flachl. 135 (1898). 



3 Roth. Tent. Fl. Germ. ii. 53 (1789). 

 •Palla, 1. c. (1897). 



'Aschers. & Graebn. Syn. Mitteleurop. Fl. ii. Ab. 2, 300 (1904). 



