64 The Ottawa Naturalist. [June 



original description of Eriophorum Ckamissonis both in the Flora 

 Altaica and in Meyer's later and more elaborate treatment give 

 the following characters. 



a. Root-stock repent, the culms solitary : "radix repens hinc 



inde protrudit culmos solitarios " Fl. Alt. ; "radix valde 

 repens et hinc inde culmos solitarios emittens " Cyp. 

 Nov. 



b. Spike oblong. 



c. Anthers linear, about a line long. 



d. Bristles of the Unalaska plant the plant ot Chamisso 



reddish, of the very different Altai plant white : "lana 

 longissima, alba (in specimine unalaschcensi rufa) " 

 Fl. Alt.; "lana copiosa, laevissima, in specimine fructi- 

 fero pollicem superans. rufa (an semper ?)"- -Cyp. Nov. 



6. There are only two repent plants with solitary culms con- 

 cerned in the question of the identity of Eriophorum Chamissonis. 

 One is E. Scheuchzeri [E. capitatuni) with which your corres- 

 pondent, following a statement of Fries rather than the original 

 description and the clear plate of Meyer, would associate it. The 

 other is E. russeolum, Fries, which, before he had seen the Altai 

 element of E. Chamissonis, Fries himself recognized as unques- 

 tionably the plant meant by Meyer, saying in a discussion oi E. 

 Chamissonis with " spica oblonga " and ' antheris linearibus " 

 from Lapland : "Reliquis nominibus nnndum divulgatis E. russeo- 

 lum diximus, quod vero nomen lubenter alio publicato supprimi- 

 mus, tie inutilis synonymia augeatur." 1 



7. All botanists who know the two plants are perfectly definite 

 in their statements that Eriophorum Scheuchzeri [E. capitutum) has 

 the flowering spike broadly obovoid, in truit becoming subglobose; 

 the anthers cordate-elliptic, 1 mm. (j4 line) long ; and the bristles 

 bright white. They are equally definite in describing in the words 

 of Fries himself E. russeolum with "spica oblonga", "antheris 

 linearibus", and "lana fulvo-rubella." 2 



8. Now, if we compare the leading characters of Eriophorum 

 Scheuchzeri {E. capitutum) with those of E. Chamissonis as origin- 

 ally described, we shall find that it disagrees in having the flower- 



1 Fries, Nov. Mant. ii. 2 (1839). 



2 Fries, 1. c. ii. 1 (1839), iii. 170 (1842). 



