62 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Feb. 



the nineteen authors he quotes on this species, and omitted the 

 name given by Fries, C. sparsiflora. In my specimens from 

 Europe, and one of them from the hand of Fries (in my collection), 

 there is too great a difference for identity of species ; and if so, 

 different plants may have been confounded by some authors. The 

 one from Fries has a pair of too close-fruited spikes, scarcely 

 sheathed, too nearly sessile, and bracts too leaf-like. The others 

 correspond chiefly to the above description, authorized by those of 

 Fries, Lang, Anderson, Kunze and Steudel. In Hooker's Flora 

 Bor.-Amer., Dr. Boott gave C. plioeostachyce, Smith as synonymous 

 with C. vaginata Tausch, as does Kunze also, and credited it to 

 Greenland, Fort Norman on Mackenzie River, and Rocky Mts. 

 It is doubtless the European plant. Dr. Gray informed Mr. 

 Paine, who had found a variety in this vicinity, that C. vaginata 

 had been found near Montreal by the late Mr. Macrae, and later 

 at " Riviere-du-Loup by "W. Boott." A recent * examination 

 of some of Dr. Macrae's plants by Prof. Brunet of Quebec, did 

 not detect any plant of that name. I had hoped to ascertain 

 whether the Montreal specimens agreed with the European or with 

 the varities found by Mr. Paine. This differs however from the 

 European in so many particulars that a more full account is given 

 under the following name. 



Var. alto-CAULIS, Dewey : Spica staminifera brevi cylindracea 

 erecta vel infra " rectangule fracta ;" pistilliferis spicis 1-3, saepe 

 1, vulgo 2, per-raro 3, cylindraceis brevibus laxifioris vel alterno- 

 fructiferis sub-vicinis vel remotis, suprema subsessili, infirma 

 interdum subradicali exserto-pedunculata, bracteatis vaginantibus, 

 fructibus tristigmaticis ovatis ovato-conicis ellipticis interdum 

 obovatis infra teretibus substipitatis subtriquetris lsevibus nervosis 

 brevi-rostratis bidentatis, rostro recto vel refracto, squama subacuta 

 duplo longioribus : culmo alto-cauli infra laevi inclinato longi- et 

 arcti-foliaceo : vagina angusta cum folio. 



Culm 12-30 inches high, very slender and nearly filiform above, 

 stiff and inclined, with culm leaves about half as long, sometimes 

 longer ; staminate spike single, short-cylindric or oblong, often 

 distant from upper pistillate, erect or with stem bent rectangularly 

 above and near that pistillate, with scales oblong and obtuse, green 

 on the back and reddish on the sides or wholly ; pistillate spikes 

 1-3, often 1, commonly 2, very seldom 3, cylindric, short, erect, 

 loose-flowered or alternate-fruited, near or often quite remote ; 

 lowest rarely subradical, long-pedunculate, upper sometimes nearly 



