498 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 



form. This larger plant was described by Lange as var. longibracteata 

 and later figured by him in Flora Danica, xvii. t. 3050 ; and again it 

 has been described by Ridley and figured in Jour. Bot. xix. 97, t. 218, 

 as var. Leesii. A third European form, var. pallida, Peterm., as shown 

 by Reichb. Ic. Fl. Germ. viii. 26, t. 240, has the densely flowered spike- 

 lets closely approximate in an ovoid or subglobose head. 



In studying this European species in connection with the well known 

 American plant which has recently been called C. communis, Bailey, the 

 writer has been baffled in every attempt to find constant distinguishing 

 characters to separate the plants of the two continents. The form of 

 the plant most common perhaps in America is apparently rare in Europe 

 (var. longibracteata, Lange ; var. Leesii, Ridley), but it passes by abso- 

 lutely promiscuous variations into a small form which can be distin- 

 guished in none of its characters from the smaller tendency of the 

 European C. pihdifera. 



By early caricologists the American plant was supposed to be Carex 

 varia, Muhl., and under that name it passed until in 1889 Professor 

 Bailey showed that Muhlenberg's plant was the more slender species 

 described by Dewey as G. Emmonsii. In place of the misapplied name, 

 C. varia, Professor Bailey proposed for the plant which had long borne 

 that name the new appellation G. communis, giving no suggestion that 

 the plant has close affinity to the common G. pihdifera of Europe. To 

 earlier students, however, the separation of the American and European 

 plants of this group had presented many perplexities. Drejer stated in 

 his Revisio that he could find no distinctions either in the descriptions or 

 specimens : " Forsitan nostra planta rectius cum G. varia Muhlenb. 

 conjungitur ; quo modo autem G. variam a C. pihdifera. distinguam, 

 neque ex descriptione neque ex speciminibus eruere possum." 1 Schlech- 

 tendahl discussing specimens in the Willdenow herbarium which he took 

 for C. varia was unable to point out any character to separate it from 

 C. pihdifera .- " Species haec vero simillima C. puhdiferae et uti nobis 

 fere videtur eadem." 2 Whether Drejer and Schlechtendahl had true 

 C. varia of Muhlenberg or the coarser plant which so long passed under 

 that name is not perfectly clear, although it is probable that Schlechten- 

 dahl at least had the true C. varia. 3 This plant, the true C. varia (C. 

 Emmonsii, Dewey) is readily distinguished from C. pihdifera by its 

 much more slender habit, very narrow leaves and smaller-bodied longer- 

 beaked perigynia. 



1 Drejer, Rev. Crit, 55. 2 Linnaea, X. 262. 



3 See Bailey, Mem. Torr. Club., I. 40. 



