454 PROCEEDINGS OP THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 



scales and deltoid-ovate obscurely short-beaked perigynia. These figures 

 of Schkuhr's agree very well with his descriptions. Furthermore, they 

 agree equally well with Willdenow's diagnoses, for these latter were 

 essentially the same as Schkuhr's. Professor Bailey further states that 

 C. sterilis and C. sc/'rpoides are identical with the common American 

 plant which he had formerly treated as C. echinata, var. microstachi/s, 

 a plant with lanceolate or narrowly ovate slender-beaked perigynia ; 

 and for this aggregate he takes up the name C. sterilis. After thus 

 bunching three very different species as C. sterilis, lie separates from 

 "our so-called Carex echinata" two plants, C. atlantica and C. interior, 

 with ' ; ample specific characters." 



Through the kindness of Dr. J. M. Greenman the writer has been 

 able to examine camera-drawings of Willdenow's original material ; 

 while from Professor Carl Mez he has received fragments from the 

 original material of Schkuhr. The drawings of the Willdenow mate- 

 rial of both Carex sterilis and C. scirpoides, and the Schkuhr specimens 

 of C. scirpoides agree with the original diagnoses. Dr. Greenman has, 

 further, compared critically specimens sent him of the different Ameri- 

 can forms with Willdenow's plants and with authentic specimens of 

 C. stellulata, Gooden. (C. echinata, Murray). The identification thus 

 made of these forms, leads to a conclusion very different from that 

 published by Professor Bailey. These results may best be stated by 

 discussing separately the three clearly cut species which have been so 

 unfortunately confused. 



Carex echinata, Murray (C stellulata, Gooden.). This species was 

 long considered a boreal plant of broad range, and it was so treated 

 by Torrey, Tuckerman, Dewey, Carey, and other early students of 

 American Carices. Francis Boott distinctly implied that the European 

 species occurs in British America, saying: "I have not seen specimens 

 which I can satisfactorily refer to the European C. stellulata, south of 

 the British provinces of North America." 1 Yet Professor Bailey has 

 interpreted this to mean that " Francis Boott questioned if the Ameri- 

 can plant is the same as the European C. stellulata (or C. echinata) ; " 

 and in "eliminating the European species from our flora," he says: 

 " Definite specific characters of separation are obscure, and yet I am 

 convinced that they exist. The American plant is habitually taller 

 than the European, the scales are sharper and usually longer, the 

 perigynia are more strongly nerved and more attenuated or conical, 



i Boott, 111., I. 56. 



