— 227 — 



24. C. gracilis Good.; C. acuta L. ex parte; Ledebour, Fl. Ross., 

 p. 313; Meinshausen, 1. c, p. 335; Boissier, Fl. Orient, p. 419. 



There are specimens from two places in Pamir, which I refer to 

 C. gracilis; they are rather different from the ordinary type of this species 

 having short erect female spikes, but in all essential characters they agree 

 with it (phyllopod, flat leaves, etc.). 



N. 981. Pamir, on the shore of the lake Jashil-Kul, alt. 3780 m ; 

 July 28, 1898. 



N. 1268. Pamir, at Djangarlik near the river Pamir-darja. Sep- 

 tember 6, 1898. 



25. C. orbicularis Boott, Proc. Linn. Soc. I, 1845, p. 254, and 

 Transact. Linn. Soc. XX, 1851; p. 134, Clarke in Hooker, Fl. Brit. India, 

 p. 7 1 1 as synon. to C. rigida. 



In the material of Carices from Pamir there are several numbers of an 

 interesting species in many respects intermediate between C. Goodenoughii 

 Gay and C. rigida Good (see Fig. 2). The late C. B. Clarke had named the 

 specimens C. vulgaris Fr. (== C. Goodenoughii), and on the other hand I 

 was inclined to identify them with G rigida. Now we have in the 

 Copenhagen Herbarium a Carex from "Herb. Ind. Or., Hooker fil. & Thom- 

 son" collected in West-Tibet, regio alp., alt. 14 — 16,000 feet, which is 

 quite the same form as the Pamir plant, and this species is named C. 

 orbicularis Boott. I have not seen the preliminary description of C. orbi- 

 cularis by Boott in 1845, but the diagnosis and the full description in 

 Boott's paper from 1854 agree well with our plant. Therefore I use 

 Boott' s name for it. It deserves certainly a specific rank in spite of its 

 relations to the above mentioned two species, of which it probably is the 

 Central-Asiatic mountain representative. As an addition to the description 

 given by Boott I will mention the following characters: 



Tufted, with short stolons; old leaves and sheaths persistent; leaves 

 rather short, 3 — 3,5 mm broad, flat (with papillose epidermis-cells on 

 both surfaces), glaucous; stems 10 — 20 cm high; one terminal male spike 

 with obtuse more or less darky brown scales; 2 — 3 short globose or 

 ellipsoid female spikes, sometimes with male flowers in the top, sessile 

 or the lower very shortly stalked; bracts very short, not sheathing, with 

 blackish ears, blade of the lower one shorter than the spike, setaceous, 

 those of the others mostly wanting. Scales of the female spikes obtuse, 

 blackish or black-brown with lighter midvein and margins, shorter and 

 narrower than the mature fruit; utricle orbiculate or obovate, about 

 2 — 2,o mm long, apiculate with a short entire beak, plano-convex, nerve- 

 less, mostly black-brown, when mature, with exception of the basal part, 

 faintly papillose; nut orbiculate or obovate, biconvex or plano-convex, api- 

 culate; stigmas 2. 



