504 PROCEEDINGS OP THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 



ana, DC. Fl. Fr. vi. 293. C. varia, Authors, incl. Boott, 111. 1. c. 

 97, ia part, not Muhl. C. varia^ var. pedicellata^ Dewey, Am. Jour. 

 Sci. xi. 163, in part. C. varia, var. minor ^ Boott, 1. c. t. 289. C. 

 communis^ in part, and var. Wheelei-i, Bailey, Mem. Torr. CI. i. 41. 

 C. pedicellata, in part, and var. Wheeleri, Britton, Mem. Torr. CI. 

 V. 87, 88. — In dry soil, New Brunswick to British Colombia, 

 North Carolina, Ohio and Wisconsin: common in Europe. 

 Passing gradually to 



Var. LONGiBRACTEATA, Langc. Coarser ; the inflorescence often 

 5 to 8 cm. long, the usually fuller and longer pistillate spikelets remote, 

 the lowest 1.5 to 4 cm. apart : perigynia larger, more ellipsoid or 

 spindle-form, with longer beak. ^ — Haandb. Dansk. Fl. 621, & Fl. Dan. 

 xvii. 12, t. 3050; Kneucker, Allgem. Bot. Zeitschr. (1898) 128. C. 

 varia, Authors, iu part, incl. Boott, 1. c. t. 288, not Muhl. C. varia, 

 var. pedicellafa, Dewey, 1. c, in part. C. saxumbra, F. A. Lees, 

 Jour. Bot. xix. 25. C. pilulifera, var. Leesii, Ridley, Jour. Bot. xix. 98, 

 t. 218. C. communis, Bailey, 1. c. in part. C. pedicellata, Britton, 

 1. c. in part. — New Brunswick to Iowa and Gkorgia : rare and 

 local' in northern Europe. 



Carex pennsylvanica. 



Carex pennsylvanica, Lam., is one of the widest-distributed of the 

 North American Carices, and as one of the earliest-flowering it is per- 

 haps better known to the general botanist than any of the other species. 

 In the length and breadth of its leaves, the comparative height of its 

 culm, etc., the plant shows considerable variation, and many formal 

 varieties have been based upon these characters. But since they are 

 all of a purely vegetative nature, often produced in a colony of the 

 species by changes of ecological conditions, none of these variations 

 seem to the writer of sufiicient constancy to merit recognition as more 

 than trivial forms. The color of the spikelets, also, a character too 

 commonly relied upon to separate C. pennsylvanica from the closely 

 related C. pihdifera, L. (C communis, Bailey), is not to be accepted 

 as final, since C. pennsylvanica, ordinarily characterized by dark reddish 

 brown scales, may often have them pale or even straw-colored when 

 growing in deep shade. Furthermore, C. pihdifera in northern Europe 

 as well as in America is frequently found with dark red scales, especially 

 when growing iu very sunny or exposed situations. The simplest means 

 of distinguishing C. pennsylvanica from its nearest common ally is in 

 its stoloniferous character-, for when well developed the plant produces 



