Bicknell : Ferns and flowering plants of Nantucket 491 



pale green ; perigynia commonly narrower, greener and less 

 pubescent, more attenuate at base and apex, the beak longer; 

 scales of both fertile and staminate spikes longer and narrower, 

 more attenuate and sharper and usually much paler in color or 

 wholly white. 



Carex Emmoiisii is more of a shade plant than Carex varia 

 and is most at home about the dryish borders of wet thickets or 

 b°ggy places in the woods either on hills or in low grounds. On 

 Long Island it is common on the coastal plain as well as on the 

 hills ; Carex varia occurs in drier, more open places on the hills 

 but seems to be wholly absent from the coastal plain. 



When these two plants are once understood I think there is 

 little likelihood of their being mistaken for each other. 



* Carex umbellata Schkuhr. 



Common in sandy open ground; fully mature June 7 to 17. 

 Perigynia 3.5-4 mm. long, 1.5-2 mm. wide, slightly pubescent to 

 glabrate, more or less nerved, at maturity becoming distended, pulpy, 

 and white at the base, the beak 1— 1.5 mm. long; achene ovoid- 

 subglobose, obscurely 3-sided, 1. 5-1.75 mm. long, 1. 25-1. 50 mm. 

 thick, dull grayish black or silvery, appearing minutely roughened. 



This plant agrees so well with Schkuhr's illustration of Carex 

 mbellata that there can be little doubt that it is definitely typical, 

 although a form with longer-beaked, more pubescent perigynia 

 would seem to have been commonly understood in that sense. 

 The plant here in view, notwithstanding its comparatively short 

 be ak, is not the var. brcvirostris Boott. The latter plant or one 

 which must be referred to it on the basis of descriptions, is frequent 

 °n Long Island, N. Y., where the typical plant seems to be rare, 



prevailing form being the var. tonsa Fernald. The var. brevi- 

 rostris often occurs with the latter and differs from it constantly in 

 definite characters. It commonly forms larger, closer tufts and 

 has much longer, narrower, more erect and less rigid leaves and 

 mor e slender culms, some of which are capillary and elongated 

 an d bear a slender-pedicelled, bracteate fertile spike near the base of 

 the staminate one ; the perigynia are mostly pubescent and only 

 2 5~3 mm. long, with the short beak only 0.5-1 mm., the achene 

 P al e brown, rather shining and about 1.5 mm. long by 1 mm. 

 thi< *. I have long regarded this plant as a distinct species and 



the 



