45(3 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 



and with other authentic European specimens of the group. In reply 

 Dr. Greenman writes of this specimen : 



" No. 4. Differs from the original C. sterilis, Willd., in the following 

 characters : («) narrower, more gradually acuminate and longer beaked 

 perigynium ; (b) more oblong achene, which is less narrowed at the 

 base. To me, however, your No. 4 is a perfect match for Carex stellu- 

 lata in herb. Willdenow, and for European C. echinata, Murr. I am 

 quite unable to make any distinction between them. The perigynial 

 characters are exactly the same." 



Extreme difficulty is experienced, then, in attempting to distinguish 

 the American Carex echinata from Old World material. The range of 

 the American plant, too, from Labrador to Alaska, and southward in the 

 mountains, immediately places the species in the hyperboreal flora from 

 which Professor Bailey, at least by inference, would exclude it. In view 

 of these two facts there seems, then, as Mr. Holm has already indicated, 

 good reason to consider both the American and the European plant C. 

 echhiata, Murr. 



Carex sterilis, Willd. This plant has already been sufficiently defined 

 in the discussion of Willdenow's original description and of Schkuhr's 

 figure. The writer has, however, examined with much care camera- 

 drawings of Willdenow's material made by Dr. Greenman and fragments 

 of Schkuhr's material generously sent by Professor Carl Mez. The 

 Willdenow plant, which alone is of final importance, proves to be iden- 

 tical with the large species of the Atlantic seaboard recently described 

 as C. atlantica. The fragment sent by Professor Mez from the Sclikuhr 

 herbarium is, however, from cultivated material, and is only a form of 

 C. echinata with narrow perigynia quite unlike those shown in Schkuhr's 

 figure and in the Willdenow plant as further shown by Dr. Greenmau's 

 report of his critical comparisons in the Willdenow herbarium. 



Besides No. 4, the Labrador Carex echinata, two other forms were 

 sent to Dr. Greenman for comparison with C. sterilis. No. 1 is C. 

 echinata, var. cephalantha, Bailey, collected by Dr. C. B. Graves at 

 Waterford, Connecticut, May 27, 1896. No. 2 is characteristic C. at- 

 lantica, Bailey, collected by Dr. G. G. Kennedy at Ponkapog, Canton, 

 Massachusetts, July 12, 1899. Of these two plants Dr. Greenman 

 writes : 



"No. 1. This differs from C. sterilis, Willd., in the following charac- 

 ters : (a) longer inflorescence, more remote and slightly longer spikelets ; 

 {h) longer and more prominently beaked perigynium ; (c) achene less 

 narrowed at the base. 



