502 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 



bending, and orifice of the beak show likewise considerable variation in 

 Old World specimens, all of which can be matched by our plant, while 

 the curving of the base of the style is a tendency not infrequent in 

 American as well as European specimens. On the other hand, the 

 straight style supposed to characterize the American plant is clearly 

 represented by Lange in his plate of C. pihilifera, var. longibracteata. 



The deeper purple coloring of the lower sheaths of the American 

 plant, a character much emphasized by authors, is not a satisfactory 

 distinction. The color in the American plant is usually conspicuous 

 and is pronounced by Mr. F. Schuyler Mathews a dilute maroon with 

 no true purple tendency, but rather fading in the older sheaths to 

 chestnut. Mr. Mathews, who has likewise examined the sheaths of 

 European specimens, finds the same red present in them. This color 

 of the sheaths generally fades with age, yet in specimens collected by 

 John Ball on Snowdon, by Andersson at Stockholm in 18G0, by Lauren 

 at Strombacka in 1855, and by Tuckerman at Upsala in 1841 or 1842, 

 show quite as conspicuous a red as the average American plant. 



The bright green color of the leaves of C. pihilifera has likewise been 

 maintained as a character separating that plant from the American C. 

 communis. From dried specimens alone it is impossible to make this dis- 

 tinction apparent, although the fresh plant may sometimes show a brighter 

 color than is often seen in C. communis. Yet in the American plant the 

 leaves vary from a weak to a deep green, and in Bailey's var. Wheeleri, 

 which is certainly inseparable from European specimens of C. jrihilifera, 

 the leaves were originally described as '"bright green." 



The length of the stamiuate spikelet and the breadth of the leaves, 

 two characters upon which stress is sometimes laid, were not emphasized 

 by Dr. Boott. An examination of the accompanying table of measure- 

 ments of the inflorescence will show that the length of the staminate 

 spikelets is thoroughly inconstant and not concomitant with other char- 

 acters. In fact, both short and long staminate spikelets are often found 

 on the same individual, as shown by Halacsy's no. 10G4 of the Austro- 

 Hungarian Exsiccatae (staminate spikelets from 7 to 18 mm. long), by 

 Fernald's no. 151 from Maine (spikelets G to 13 mm. long), and a 

 Faxon plant from Franconia, New Hampshire (spikelets from 8 to 14 

 mm. long). The variations in the breadth of the leaf, likewise, are 

 very great on both continents. The young leaves at the fruiting season 

 are naturally much narrower than the old and weather-beaten ones, 

 which, unfortunately, are too often torn away in the preparation of 

 attractive specimens. Measurement of the breadth of these older leaves 



