iqo6] The Identity of Eriophorum Chamissonis, &c. 65 



ing spike broadly obovoid instead of oblong : the anthers cordate- 

 elliptic, about 1 mm, long, instead of linear, about 1 line ( 1.5-3 mm 

 long ; and the bristles bright white instead of reddish. These 

 differences were perfectly understood by Meyer when he origin- 

 ally published E. Chamissonis ; and it is quite clear that those 

 botanists who, like your correspondent, maintain that Meyer had 

 in mind E. Scheuchseri (E. capitatum) cannot have taken the trouble 

 to read carefullv Meyer's original discussion of E. Chamissonis, for 

 there Meyer says il Er. capitatum Hoffm. differt spica suhroiunda 

 spatham aequante nee non antheris brevibus cordato-ellipticis." 1 



9. When, however, we compare Eriophorum russeolum, or 

 Fries's own description of it, with the original detailed description 

 of E. Chamissonis and the fine plate of Chamisso's plant, we must 

 admit that in their oblong spikes, long linear anthers, and reddish 

 bristles, they are quite identical ; and that in 1839, before being 

 prejudiced by the confusion oi' the Altai element with the Kam- 

 chatkan and Unalaskan type of E, Chamissonis, Fries was quite 

 right in deciding that it was best to suppress his own E. russeo- 

 lum, a course which is followed not on'y by the writer but by 

 Richter, and some other European students of the group. 



The foregoing notes are much longer than I should ordinarily 

 ask you to publish, but, since your correspondent has seen fit to 

 doubt the care with which the identity of E. russeolum and the 

 earlier E. Chamissonis has been worked out, it is necessary to re- 

 state what is already published in my earlier notes. 



M. L. Fernald. 

 Gray Herbarium, 



Cambridge, Mass , May 24, 1906. 



1 C. A. Meyer in Mem. Sav. Etrang-. Acad. St. Petersb. i 205 ( 1831 ^ 



L 





