FERNALD. — SCIRPUS ERIOPHORUM. 499 



habit is that of many Scirpi, and it seenas much better placed there than 

 in the other genus. 



As stated, the plants of Linnaeus and his predecessors and of Michaux, 

 both of which are probably extremes of a single species, are coarse plants 

 most common from southern New England southward. The base of the 

 involucre and the spikelets are ferruginous, and the long tangled bristles 

 are also reddish brown, and in the fall, when the plants are mature, the 

 ample inflorescences have the appearance of loose reddish brown masses 

 of short wool. That this plant was clearly identified by American sys- 

 tematists early in this century is shown, not only by their descriptions, 

 but by the English name " Red cotton-grass," ^ sometimes employed 

 by them. 



Not until 1836, however, in Torrey's monograph of the Cyperacece, 

 was the slender and uniformly smaller greenish-brown or drab "wool- 

 grass," familiar to all botanists of New England and Canada, noted in 

 botanical works; although from a manuscript note made by Dr. Gray 

 while examining the Michaux herbarium, it seems that Michaux col- 

 lected the smaller northern plant at Lake Mistassini, and that in the 

 herbarium Lestiboudois had treated it as an undescribed species. Li 

 his monograph Torrey described the plant without a name as a variety 

 of Scirpus Eriophorum (^S. Eriophorimi r]'). Apparently the next 

 reference to the plant is in the first edition of the Manual, where, under 

 Scirpus Eriophorum, Dr. Gray says, " and northward are slender, less 

 leafy forms, with much smaller umbels, and greenish-brown scattered 

 small heads." ^ 



The slender northern plant, with the involucre black below and with 

 greenish black scales and dull brown or dark bristles, by all means the 

 commonest " wool-grass " north of Boston, does not seem to have re- 

 ceived much further attention. In subsequent discussions of the group 

 it has been united with the now clearly identified ferruginous coarse 

 plant of more southern range. The latter plant, the true Scirpus Erio- 

 phorum, Michaux, and its var. cyperinus {Eriophorum cyperinum, L.) are 

 usually not mature until late August or September (the average date of 

 collection, without regard to locality, of the specimens examined is Sep- 

 tember 1), while the slender northern plant, the *S'. Eriophorum rj, Torrey, 

 is generally mature in late June or in July (average date July 18), though 

 its dead-ripe woolly umbels may remain in recognizable condition until 



1 Bigel. Fl. Bost. 16. 3 Gray, Man. 528. 



2 Torr. Ann. Lye. Nat. Hist. N. Y. iii. 331. 



