NOTES ON SOME BRITISH CARICES. 333 



and diffuse, and green in color. Europe, generally distributed, and 

 Atco, New Jersey, Martindale, introduced. Often confounded with 

 elatior. This is not the plant which commonly passes for var. 

 (EdeH (see var. ci/peroides), but it is certainly the one so understood 

 by the older botanists. I have not been able to find Ehrhart's 

 specimens, but the figure of (Eder's O. diiisa, which is the starting- 

 point of var. (Ederi and which is regarded by the Danish botanists 

 as this plant (teste Lange, Nomen. Fl. Dan. pp. 12 and 279 

 (1887)), is unequivocal, as is also Willdenow's excellent figure 

 (Mem. Acad. Roy. 1794). Schkuhr's figure is le?s characteristic, 

 but is, nevertheless, clearly this plant. An excellent illustration 

 of the transfer of the name to another plant is afforded by the 

 * English Botany.' Its figure of C. CEderi in 1801 is the plant 

 under discussion, but its figure so named in 1870 is var. cyperoides 

 Eepresented in America by 



" Var. GRAMINIS. 



*' Staminate spike short and sessile, pistillate spikes green, two 

 or three and contiguous, globular or short-oblong, sessile, perigy- 

 nium long-pointed but straight or nearly so, the beak often rough, 

 the bract leafy and usually divaricate, leaves comparatively broad, 

 the plant low (4 to 10 in. high), erect, green. In grassy places, 

 probably generally distributed in the North-eastern States. A 

 dwarfed and green form of the species, and is probably common. 

 Specimens fi'om Scotland closely resemble this, but several char- 

 acters appear to separate them. 



** Var. CYPEROIDES, Marsson, Fl. Neu-Vorpommern, 537 (1869). v. s. 



" C. chrijsites, Link, Hb. Berol. v. s. C. (Ederi, Syme, Eng. 

 Bot. ed. iii. x. 157, t. 1674 (1870), v. t., and most European 

 botanists. 



•' Staminate spike very small and short, closely sessile, pistil- 

 late spikes short (usually a half-inch or less long) or globular, 

 narrow, closely sessile and agglomerate at the top of the culm (or 

 rarely one remote or radical), perigynium very small and short- 

 beaked (half or less the size of the foregoing varieties), straight or 

 nearly so, yellow or golden in colour when mature, the bracts long 

 and mostly erect and involucre-like from the agglomerate position 

 of the spikes (whence the appropriate varietal name), the leaves 

 narrow and erect, plant low (3 to 8 in. high), and yellowish. 

 Europe ; from Portugal, Linh, to England and Sweden, Andersson, 

 In America, reiDresented by 



*'Var. viRiDULA. 



" C. viridula Michx. Fl. Bor.-Am. ii. 170 (1803), v. s. Hb. 

 Michx. ; Boott, 111. t. 523 (1867); Olney, Exsicc. fasc. i.. No. 27 

 (1871), V. s. C. irregularis, Schw. An. Tab. (1823 j, teste Dewey. 

 C. (Ederi Schw. and Torr. Monogr. 334 (1825); Dewey, Sill. 

 Journ. X. 38 (1826); Gray, Gram, and Gyp. Exsicc. ii. No. 166 

 (1834), V. s. ; Sartw. Exsicc. No. 124 (1848), v. s., and all 

 American authors. 



" Differs from the last, among other characters, by its greater 

 height (often a foot or more high), larger and longer spikes, and 



