500 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 



Wheeler's specimens from Grand Ledge, Michigan; Macoun's 1876 

 material from Quesnelle, British Columbia, with specimens of C. piluli- 

 fera from Berne, Switzerland (Sermge) ; Stockholm, Sweden (Andersson) ; 

 Finland (Simming) ; the Grosser Pfalzberg, Austria (^Haldcsy,\io. 1064), 

 and St. Petersburg, Russia ( Turcznninow) ; shows conclusively that the 

 remoteness of the spikelets is not to be relied upon in separating our 

 smaller American material from the European plant. In the accom- 

 panying tabulation ot" measurements from European specimens and the 

 smaller form of the American plant it will be seen that in the length of 

 the inflorescence and the number, length and remoteness of S2:)ikelets 

 essentially identical conditions are found, although the European mate- 

 rial shows a tendency to a reduction in the length of the rachis between 

 spikelets, thus passing to the short-headed var. pallida, while the Ameri- 

 can plant varying toward the elongated variety longihracteata shows a 

 natural lengthening of the rachis. 



Dr. Boott laid stress upon the more abundantly flowered spikelets of 

 C. pilulifera, but an examination of the European material shows that 

 this character is maintained only in the extreme specimens with unusu- 

 ally full spikelets. In the others many spikelets are found bearing less 

 than ten flowers while not a few have only four or five. The presence 

 or absence, in the American or the European plant, of staminate flowers 

 at the tips of the pistillate spikelets is likewise a character upon which 

 little reliance can be placed. Both Goodenough ^ and Dr. Boott ■^ noted 

 this tendency in European specimens and in a sheet of Austrian material 

 it is very conspicuous. In America likewise this tendency to androgy- 

 nous spikelets occurs, but it seems to be quite as unusual as in Europe. 



The pale or castaneous scales of Carex communis were emphasized by 

 Dr. Boott as opposed to the purple scales of C. pilulifera. Students of 

 American Carices, however, are all familiar with specimens of C. com- 

 munis from sunny or open situations in which the scales are quite as 

 purple (or rather maroon) as in C. pennsylvanica ; and many specimens 

 of European C. jnlulifera show quite as little color in the scales as do 

 the commoner plants of America. 



The basal nerves supposed to distinguish the perigynium of C. com- 

 munis from that of C. pilulifera are also quite as ol'teu wanting as 

 present ; and although Dr. Boott laid stress upon this character in his 

 comparative note, he described the perigynia of C. communis (his C. 

 varia) as "enerviis vel basi plus minus nervatis pallidis." The length, 



1 Trans. Linn. Soc, II. 191. 2 m.^ n. 95, 



