OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 59 



Til. 



CONTRIBUTION FROM THE HERBARIUM OF HARVARD 



UNIVERSITY. 



A PRELIMINARY SYNOPSIS OF NORTH AMERICAN 



CARICES, 



INCLUDING THOSE OF MEXICO, CENTRAL AMERICA, AND 



GREENLAND, WITH THE AMERICAN BIBLIOGRAPHY 



OF THE GENUS. 



By L. H. Bailey, Jr. 



Presented April 14, 1886. 



In the following Synopsis I have divided the genus, or rather its 

 American representatives, into two sub-genera and fourteen sections. 

 The primary divisions of the sections, designated by capitals, may be 

 called groups. The names of the groups are the plurals of specific 

 names. Sectional names of various ranks are now so numerous, that I 

 have made the endeavor to choose in accordance with recognized rules 

 of priority. If I have seen and examined critical or historic speci- 

 mens, the collector's name has been printed in Italics. In no case have 

 I admitted uncertain authorities for geographical distributions. Herb. 

 is an abbreviation for Herbarium. Distinguishing characters have 

 been given for those species which are not described in Gray's Manual, 

 Chapman's Flora, or Coulter's Manual of Rocky Mountain Botany. 



A genus so vast as Carex must always suffer divisions which are 

 founded upon appearances rather than characters. The most remark- 

 able of such disruptions with which I am acquainted is that proposed 

 by Rafinesque, in 1840, m "The Good Book and Amenities of 

 Nature." With a religious dread of large genera, this author divided 

 Carex into eighteen genera, and raised them, together with four genera 

 made from Uncinia, into ordinal rank under the name Carexides. 

 Long before this time he had divided the genus into four genera: 

 Carex, Scuria, Triplma, and Triodus. In 1844, J. Heuffel, in Flora, 

 adopted nine genera, of which eight were erected upon those species, 



