202 Rhodora [NovEMBER 
(including the long white tails) are 2.3-3 mm. long, in the American 
plant 1.3-2 mm. long. 
Besides these fundamental characters which clearly mark the two 
plants as distinct species there are tendencies which, though not 
constant, are worth noting: especially the more delicate texture and 
paler coloring of the bracts and perianths of the American plant, 
and the weaker filaments of the latter. In J. triglumis mature fruiting ` 
specimens often have the filaments still firm and straight, the anthers 
distinctly protruding from the top of the perianth; but in fruiting 
specimens of the American plant the filaments become shriveled 
and bent and the anthers turned to one side. Our plant is clearly 
J. triglumis, var. albescens Lange, Consp. Fl. Groenl. 123 (1880). 
Lange's description was exactly to the point: 
“Var. B. albescens! Caulibus gracilioribus minusque rigidis, glom- 
erulo minore quam in forma typica, saepius bifloro, bracteis et perigonii 
foliis pallidis, capsula vix exserta.” 
Buchenau, however, both in his Monographia Juncearum and in 
his treatment in Das Pflanzenreich, has discounted Lange's variety 
as an unimportant form, saying: * Formae diversae.—Forma bracteis 
et tepalis pallidis est var. albescens Lange, Conspectus fl. Grónland 
(1880) 123.—Forma bracteis et tepalis nigricantibus: var. a nigricans 
Regel . . . bracteis et tepalis fuscescentibus: var. B. fuscatus 
Regel." In other words, Buchenau looked upon Lange’s plant 
merely as a trivial color-form and ignored Lange's precise description 
of the capsule. That the Greenland plant is the characteristic 
American species is clear from the four Greenland collections at hand, 
two in flower, two in fruit, and all with the long-acuminate lower 
bract. 
The American species should be called 
Juncus albescens (Lange), n. comb. J. triglumis var. albescens 
Lange, Conspect. Fl. Groenl. 123 (1880). 
The following specimens have been examined. GREENLAND: 
Klaushavn, 1870, Berggr (collection cited by Lange); Disco, July 22, 
1871, T. M. Fries; Christianshaab, July 26, 1884, Warming & Holm; 
Sermiliarsuk, August 4, 1889, Hartz. Arctic AMERICA: station 
unknown, 1829-33, James Ross. LABRADOR: Square Island, August 
16, 1882, J. A. Allen; wet moss by springs and open wet spots on 
limestone tableland, Blane Sablon, August 1 and 6, 1910, Fernald & 
Wiegand, nos. 3043, 3044, NEWFOUNDLAND: peaty margins of pools 
in limestone barrens, Sandy (or Poverty) Cove, August 1, 1924, 
1 Buchenau in Engler, Das Pflanzenr., iv. Heft 36: 224 (1906). 
