78 



Carex Emmonsii^ Dew., with darJz-ptirple spikelets^ is not uncommon 

 in woods about here. Presumably, this is what Dewey called C 

 Novae- Angliae^ and regarded as common, as he paid no attention to 

 the ripened achenia or styles, which Dr. Boott so carefully noted. 

 The persistent style is a constant character of C Novae- Angliae, 



Last year I collected, on the hills of this city, numerous speci- 

 mens of Carex coiioidea^ Schk., in which the bracts exceeded the 

 culms — or rather in which the stalks of the staminate spikes were 

 considerably shortened, 

 this result.. 



Yonkers, N. Y. 



Neither insects nor disease had produced 



E. C. Howe. 



72. Cohesion of Glumes in Agrostis elata, Trin.— In No. 4,954 



of Bolander's collection of 1866, some^peculiarities of development 

 in the flowers occur which seem worth noting. The plant is a grass, 

 ticketed incorrectly, however, Agrostis vulgaris. With. It is the same 

 as No. 6,103 of the same collection, which Dr. Thurber has referred 

 to A, elata, Trin., in the Botany of California, Vol. ii, p. 274. The 

 peculiarities referred to consist in the malformation or abnormal 

 growth of both the empty and flowering glumes. Some of the spike- 

 lets appear to be double from being borne on two pedicels which are 

 united to their tips. The four empty glumes arising from this com- 

 pound or double pedicel, form a single whorl and are wholly distinct, 

 or are more or less united to each other bv their 



margms. 



Fig. 



a- 



illustrates four of these empty glumes, 

 belonging^ evidently to two spikelets. 

 The two lower of these — what would 

 constitute the lower empty glumes of 

 two sp'ikelets if normally developed, are 

 entirely separate, while the correspond- 



upper ones are united nearly 

 their tips by one of their 

 few of the spikelets are reduced to two, 

 small, imperfectly-formed, empty glumes, 

 as shown in Fiof. x. In most of the 



mg 



margms. 



to 

 A 



3 



spikelets examined the flowering glume 



& fa 



4 



% (l)alet) was normal in its characters; but 

 closely folded within this, apparently 



occupying the position of a palea, was what could only be regarded 

 as a second flower-glume, having a minute but distinct callosity, 

 sessile upon that of the first flower, and a distinct midvein, minutely 

 scabrous above. In almost every instance this second flowering 

 glume was_ bent or folded down at the top, as in Fig 4, where it is 

 pulled out in order to show it more distinctly. The figures are drawn 

 on a scale of one inch to the line. 



Girard College, Philadelphia. 



F. Lamson.Scribner 



73- The Ferns of New York State.— The 



untiring 



tj / vj- ' ^ '"^ "" '"^" -wiAi. wi.Mt.v — 1. ii\„ uiJtiiiii^ zeal of 



botanists in all sections of our country is causing great changes in 

 our knowledge of the geographical distribution of species. The fact 



