FERNALD. — CARICES OF SECTION HYPARRHENAE. 455 



and above all, it is far more variable. . . . There are probably no 

 species common to both countries, except those which are hyperboreal 

 and occur through the Arctic regions of both hemisphei'es, being found 

 in Greenland." ^ 



Then Professor Bailey defines his conception of the " habitually 

 taller " American plant with " sharper " scales, etc., etc., including in it 

 forms varying from the low slender Carex steUulata, var. augustata, 

 Carey, with '' narrowly-lanceolate perigynia tapering into a long . . . 

 beak,"- to the tall (often nearly 1 m. high) coarse C. sterilis, Willd., 

 with broad-ovate perig}Dia, and the slender C. scirpoides, Schkuhr, with 

 thick scarcely beaked often nerveless deltoid-ovate perigynia and elliptic 

 blunt scales. The two latter constituents of this aggregate apparently 

 do not occur outside North America and if they are included with the 

 other American representative of C. echinata as one species, it is of 

 course easily said that the American plant is taller or shorter, coarser or 

 more slender than the European ; and certainly a species so constituted 

 is " far more variable." 



When, however, we eliminate from the complex Carex sterilis of Pro- 

 fessor Bailey's treatment the true C. sterilis and C. scirpoides, there is left 

 a plant characterized by slender culms and leaves, the perigynia barely 

 half as broad as long, and tapering to a slender conspicuous beak which 

 is often nearly as long as the body. This is the C. echinata or C. steUu- 

 lata of American authors and it includes as formal variations the very 

 slender var. angustata^ Carey (C. echinata, var. microstachys, Boeckeler), 

 and the tall C. sterilis., var. excelsior, Bailey, while a very coarse varia- 

 tion with rather better defined characteristics is C. echinata, var. cepha- 

 lantha, Bailey. 



This American species with the narrow perigynia has been compared 

 many times by the writer with European C. echinata in a vain attempt 

 to find some point of distinction. Specimens collected by Godet at 

 Lignieres on the River Cher in central France are inseparable from 

 Mortens' material from Sitka, and, again, Japanese specimens collected 

 by Chas. Wright and by Maries are identical in their slender perigynia 

 with Newfoundland plants. In order, however, to test still further the 

 specific value of the American plant a portion of Allen's Labrador mate- 

 rial was forwarded to Dr. Greenman at Berlin, and he was asked to 

 compare it, along with other American forms, with Willdenow's types 



1 Bailey, Bull. Torr. CI., XX. 423. 

 - Carey in Gray, Man. 544. 



