1866.] MACOUN — CATALOGUE OF CARICES. 61 



twice the length of the culm and very scabrous on the edges, 

 knotted : spikes very variable ; the wholly staminiferous 1-3, 

 commonly 2, nearly half 1, very rarely 3 or none, cylindric, slender, 

 sessile ; some staminiferous have a few fruit in the middle or at 

 the base or vertex ; the terminal much the longest, and all clothed 

 with lanceolate acute scales ; pistilliferous spikes 2-7, usually 4, 

 the highest with stamens at the summit or in the middle or both 

 and sessile, the next higher exsert pedunculate and erect, the 

 lowest one or two very long-exsert pedunculate sometimes recurved, 

 and the lowest sometimes staminate at apex, all oblong-cylindric, 

 ^ to 2-| inches long, mostly erect, rather distant, loose-flowered, 

 especially below, bracteate and the lower with long-leafy bacts 

 surpassing the culm and rough-edged ; stigmas 3 ; fruit ovate- 

 conic, inflated, long conic-rostrate, bidentate, nerved, tapering 

 below, and stiped, diverging or nearly retrorse in maturity, much 

 longer than the slender ovate lanceolate scale. 



Wet grounds, Dundee, Yates Co., N. Y., discovered by Dr. S. 

 Hart Wright. Ludlowville, Tompkins Co., H. B. Lord. Hastings 

 Road, Canada West, J. Macoun. 



The retrorse fruit brings up G. retrorsa, but the difference in 

 the spikes and culm and fruit is too great, and the achenia are 

 very dissimilar. C. retrorsa has achenia long and round sub-tri- 

 quetrous ; the other has shorter triquetrous achenia tapering from 

 the middle toward each end, and not roundish. 



Yar. Bradleyi, Dewey : Staminate spikes less various ; pistil- 

 late spikes more loosely flowered ; fruit smaller ; and plant more 

 slender. 



Wet grounds, Greece, ten miles west of Rochester, Dr. S. B. 

 Bradley. Here Dr. B. had discovered C. mirata, and was search- 

 ing for its rediscovery, 1861. Also, at Belleville, Canada West, 

 J. Macoun. 



C. VAGINATA, Tausch, 1821 : Spicis distinctis ; staminifera 

 unica oblonga culmo stricto fulta vel " sub-anthesi rectangule 

 refracta ;" pistilliferis sub-binis oblongis laxifloris remotis erectis 

 linearibus exserto-pedunculatis lato-vaginatis ; fractions tristig- 

 miticis triquetro-ovatis basi attenuatis brevi-rostratis bidentatis, 

 squama oblonga sub-obtusa longioribus ; culmo lasvi foliato, foliis 

 longis lato-linearibus margine supra scabris, bracteae vagina vix 

 foliaceum cuspidem abruptam ferente ; culmo perlaevi. 



This plant is widely spread over Germany and Scandinavia, but 

 it is so variable that Kunze in 1840-50 gave twelve synonyms in 



