Bicknell : Ferns and flowering plants of Nantucket 493 



I 



ture — a taller and stouter form, less conspicuously awned and 

 bracteate. 



Carex rosea Schkuhr is admitted by Mrs. Owen. This record 

 seems to need confirmation, especially as the species is sometimes 

 rather strikingly suggested by slender, few-flowered forms of Carex 

 cephalantha Bailey. 



* Carex muricata L. 



Thoroughly naturalized in the town region, often growing in 

 dense tufts and in some places fairly massed along the fences 

 bordering low fields and roadsides. 



On Sept. 1 5, 1907, some of these luxuriant growths had become 

 a tangle of widely overcurved and reclined culms, many of them * 

 4 feet to 4 feet 10 inches in length and bearing dark brown heads 

 mature fruit. At the same time some thin tufts in a dry pasture 

 west of the town bore short, nearly prostrate culms only 3-4 dm. 

 lon g- Freshly in flower June 7. Not seen further from the town 

 *an about one mile out on the south side. 



Carex Muhlenbergii Schkuhr. 



Occasional or frequent in dry open places. Freshly in flower 

 7; mostly beyond full maturity in September. Fully 



June 

 typical 



specimens were collected, as well as a smaller, more 

 Se nder form in which the heads are 1.25-2.5 cm. long and the 

 P^'gynia 3 mm. or less long and 1.5-2 mm. wide. 



Ca rex cephalantha (Bailey) comb, no v. 



6 echinata Murray var. cephalantha Bailey, Mem. Torrey Club 



*: 58. 1889. 



C. stellulata var. cephalantha Fernald, Rhodora 4 : 222. 1902. 



C stelhdata var. excelsior (Bailey) Fernald, loc. cit. 



One of the abundant Carices of the island, occurring every- 



ere in open, low grounds and wet places. A considerable 



ge of variation is shown, which" appears to be largely a matter 



relative vigor of growth. In its most reduced state the plant is 



p dm. high, the leaves 1 mm. or less in width, the 3-5 kw- 



2 ° Wered subglobose spikes approximate in a head sometimes only 



t ° m " Ion g- From these smaller plants the gradation is insensible 



. th e larger forms over 5 dm. tall, with heads 4-6 cm. long, of 



many-flowered spikes, the lower ones well separated and 



