476 TRANS. OF THE ACAD. OF SCIENCE. 
and the form of the smaller seeds, These seeds are 0.25-0.83 
line long, 24 diameters being equal to the length; appendages 
about equal to the diameter, so that the whole seed has a 
length of 0.40—0.60 line; 7-9 ribs visible, connected by deli- 
cate cross-lines. 
Var. ais readily known by its low stature, rarely over a 
foot high, erect, dark colored panicle (1-4 inches long and 
2-1} inches wide) and elongated capsules, and therefore 
longer fruit-heads; the sepals are usually acute, but in some 
forms from Pennsylvania and from New Hampshire I have 
found them obtuse. American botanists have usually taken 
this form for J. acwminatus, Michx.; but Michaux’s plant 
is very different and, moreover, comes from South Carolina, 
while the present variety is, I believe, not found south of 
Pennsylvania. Prof. Porter gets in the mountains of tbat 
State a low form with more patulous lighter colored panicles, 
and more obtuse sepals, Hb. n. 78, which seems to form a 
transition to the next variety. 
Var. 8 stands in habit and stature nearest to var. y, but 
its small, short heads,obtuse sepals and short capsules dis- 
tinguish it at once from that and from var. a; our botanists 
have sometimes confounded it with J. dedilis or with J. arti- 
culatus, from both of which however the characters enumer- 
ated readily distinguish it. Stem 1-2} feet high; panicle 4—9 
inches long and proportionately wide. Mr. C. E. Smith gets 
a form at Tinnicum, near Philadelphia, which unites this 
with var. y, having the seeds of this, but the greater number of 
flowers (10-12), the larger heads, and the pointed sepals, of 
the other. 
Var. y is a rather rare plant and does not seem to have at- 
tracted the attention of botanists, though it had been collect- 
ed especially about Philadelphia and in New Jersey, until 
Mr. Bebb of Washington and Mr. Smith of Philadelphia stu- 
died it with a great deal of attention; the shortness of the 
appendages had induced some to place it away from its close 
alliances and with or near J. acuminatus, but I cannot enter- 
tain any doubt but that it is so closely allied to var. 6 that it 
can barely be kept apart from it, the length of the append- 
ages being quite variable even in seeds from the same capsule. 
The whole plant, however, is more delicate, lighter green, the 
stem weak, and more usually decumbent, the panicle very 
loose, commonly with long and often horizontally-spreading 
slender branches; heads pale, 8-15-20-flowered; flowers as 
large as in the next, 1}—2 lines long; sepals always subulate and 
very acute, and often only 1-nerved; capsule more commonly 
acute or acutate, as long or mostly longer than the sepals; 
seeds 0.25—-0.36 line long, thicker than in the next variety, the 
length being equal to 2-2} diameters; seed with appendages 
0.83-0.50 or very rarely 0-60 line long; appendages less than 
