53 
that faith in a bee's sagacity that I fancy if Mr. Darwin had continued 
the work for a few days, and on a scale to make it worth while, the 
little creatures would have found out the trick. 
Thomas Meehan. 
Carex Pennsylvanica and Carex varia.— Whether these sedges 
are simply varieties, one of the other, or whether each is a true 
species, continues to be a mooted question. Without entering into 
the literature of the subject, it may be said that Gray, in the last 
edition of his manual, guardedly states that they " seem to run 
together/' 
The latest that I have seen touching the question is a note by Dr. 
E. C. Howe, in the Bulletin for July, 1881, wherein is advanced 
evidence to show that the two plants intergrade. Dr. Howe states 
that in a large series of specimens " separation becomes guesswork " 
But does not the Doctor mean that certain characters presmned to 
be diagnostic of one or the other plant do not always so prove. As 
to the interchange, between these sedges, of characters which have 
been regarded as distinctive of one or the other, I fully agree with 
Dr. Howe ; but from this I deduce, not identity of the two plants, 
but simply that certain differential characters are less stable than 
our text-books may have led us to "believe. 
Perhaps there is no surer way of discovering the true relation- 
ship of allied or doubtful species, whether of plants or animals, than 
by comparative study of their earlier stages of development. Ac- 
cording to a now familiar biological law we expect community of 
origin of differing types of life to be indicated by increased simi- 
larity as we compare at successively earlier stages of development. 
Indeed, in recently differentiated forms, we would look for practical 
identity up to a point in development close upon maturity. 
An application of these principles to the two Carice.s now under 
notice goes to show, not only that they are distinct species, but that 
their ancestral relationsliip was in some respects more remote than 
is their present ; for certain differences between the plants are 
more emphasized in the earlier stages of their growth that at any 
later period. I refer particularly to differences in the leaves, scales 
and bracts and the disposition of the spikes. This fact is a signifi- 
cant one, and one on which the specific validity of the plants may 
safely "rest, 
B'ut I wish chiefly to call attention to important differences m 
the subterranean parts of the plants which our text-books fail to 
recognize : Carex Pennsylvanica differs conspicuously from C^^^^^ 
varia in having running, underground stems. These extend in a 
directions from the central plant, each fostering a succession 
shoots, some of which themselves become centres of a -secondary ^^^^f 
of runners, which thus distribute a numerous progeny all about thei 
parent. I have unearthed runners bearing at intervals of a few incne 
four or more generations of living shoots, together with tjie remain^ 
of several older generations. Hence the new shoots do not ^^^^^^ 
become established as separate plants, but often remain j^^"^^, ^ 
underground connection, through the two or three years that tn y 
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