219 



Dewey's van vicina to designate it, inasmuch as his figure of this 

 variety appears to represent the plant which I mean. I should 

 not doubt the application of Dewey's name did he not make the 

 following apology for its creation, evidently in order that he 

 might forestall any disposition to erect it into specific rank: "As 

 this variety is found growing on the same root with the other 



] 



This Indicates that 



Professor Dewey intended to refer to those occasional specimens of 

 true C. umbellata which produce one or two true culms. But his 

 figure may be taken to indicate the plant in which the production 

 of true culms is the habit, and by so understanding it the present 

 writer avoids the necessity of making a new name for a well 

 known thing. In truth, the two plants which are here designated 

 are strongly characterized, but it is expected that there are inter- 

 mediate forms, else they would be separated as species ; so that 

 it will be unnecessary to separate plants coming from the same 

 root, either for the purpose of founding a new variety or of assur- 

 ing the reader that the two plants really belong to the same spe- 



cies. 



Www 

 b. Wil 



Carex umbellata, Schkuhr, Riec 

 171, V.S., Hb. Schk.; Willd. Sp. 



Boott, 111. t. 292. 



Tufts small and dense (i to 3 in. across) ; leaves short and 

 often stiff (2 to 6 in. long); spikes all on separate scapes which 

 do not exceed two inches in length, usually densely aggregated 

 at the surface of the ground, or the staminate scape sometimes 

 elevated an Inch or so above the pistillate ones. Dry knolls and 

 banks, New Jersey and Pennsylvania to New York (and New 

 England ? ), and perhaps farther westward. The spikes are so 

 much hidden in the leafy base of the tuft that the plant is prob- 

 ably not generally detected ; hence the geographical limits of 

 e species cannot be given with certainty. 



th 



J 



Tufts looser and larger ; leaves longer (often a foot or more) 

 and laxer, often broader ; some pistillate spikes on scapes, but a 

 part or most of them sessile or nearly so near the base of the 

 staminate spike on a true culm which Is from 3 to 8 inches high, 

 one or two on each culm. With the species, and evidently fur- 



