FERNALD. — VARIATIONS OP BOREAL CARICES. .503 



where present shows in the American plant a variation from 2 to 5.5 

 mm. and in the European from 2 to 4.5 mm. These measurements, 

 however, include the largest American form, in which all the parts are 

 conspicuously more developed than in the smaller American and the 

 apparently identical European plant. * 



The length of the lower bract, emphasized in the descriptions of 

 C. pilulifera, var. longibracteata and var. Leesii, seems to the writer 

 an unfortunate character to make prominent. In America, at least, 

 this elongation of the bract accompanies no other definable character. 

 It is a purely vegetative development which may occur either in the 

 large form (C. varia [typical] of Boott's 111. t. 288) or in the smaller 

 C. communis, var. Wheeleri with shorter inflorescence and more approxi- 

 mate spikelets. 



This study of the European Carex pilulifera and the American C. 

 communis (C. varia of many authors) has led to the following con- 

 clusions. The form of C. pilulifera of Europe with the pistillate spike- 

 lets subapproximate or slightly remote, the lowest from 0.5 to 1 cm. 

 apart, is also common in America, where the plant has passed generally 

 as C. varia, var. minor, Boott ; C. communis, Bailey, and C. pedicellata, 

 Britton, in part ; or C. communis, var. Wheeleri, Bailey (C. pedicellata, 

 var. Wheeleri, Britton). Another European form, the large C. pihdi- 

 fera, var. longibracteata, Lange, is rare in Europe, but in America is 

 represented by the large extreme which has passed as C. varia and later 

 as C. communis and C. pedicellata. The American plants, then, should 

 be called 



C. PiLULiFKRA, L. Cidms 1 to 5 dm. high, usually overtopping the 

 leaves: inflorescence 1 to 3.5 cm. long, the lowest spikelet subtended 

 by a short and narrow or sometimes elongated broad bract : staminate 

 spikelet from green to chestnut-brown or maroon, sessile or stalked, 

 3.5 to 20 mm. long; pistillate spikelets 1 to 5, loosely flowered, 4 to 

 11 mm. long, sessile or short-pedicelled, subapproximate or slightly 

 remote, the lowest rarely 1.5 cm. apart: perigynia hairy, obscurely 

 3-angled, 2.5 to 3.5 mm. long, the body plump, obovoid or subglobose, 

 with a more or less elongated spongy nerveless or slightly nerved 

 stipitate base ; the beak broad, bidentate, rarely 1 mm. long, nearly 

 or quite equalled by the green brown or reddish-brown ovate acuminate 

 scale. — Sp. 976; Gooden. Trans. Linn. Soc. ii. 190; Schk. Riedgr. 

 78, t. I, fig. 39; Andersson, Cyp. Scand. 30, t. 7, fig. 82; Reichb. Ic. 

 Fl. Germ. viii. t. 260 ; Boott, 111. ii. 96, t. 283. C. filiformis, Pol. 

 PI. Palat. ii. 581 ; Vahl, Fl. Dan. vi. t. 1048; not L. C. Bastardi- 



