334 



NATURAL HISTORY BULLETIN. 



are mostly founded on the scales, mature fruit, and the char- 

 acter and disposition of the spikes, and even here the diver- 

 sity is so small when compared with the number of species as 

 to render the genus an exceedingly difficult one for the stud- 

 ent. In height our species are from a few inches to about 

 four feet. Most of these plants grow somewhat scattered, 

 interspersed with the grasses; some are extensively stoloni- 

 ferous, forming patches, while others grow in large and dense 

 tufts. The greater number prefer damp situations, growing 

 in marshes and swales, or along the margins of ponds and 

 streams. Some occur only in timber, while a few delight in 

 a very dry soil and assist in forming a scant covering for ster- 

 ile knolls and hillsides. 



Dr. C. E. Bessey in the report of the Iowa Agricultural 

 College for 1871 published the first Contribution to the Flora 

 of Iowa, in which is given a short list of the sedges then 

 known to the state. In the Flora of Iowa, a catalogue of the 

 flowering plants prepared by Dr. J. C. Arthur for the Cen- 

 tennial Commission, is given a more complete list of these 

 plants. To this latter publication Dr. Arthur made several 

 additions, and Prof. A. S. Hitchcock, formerly of Ames, gave 

 some additional species in a paper published in the Bulletin of 

 the Torrey Botanical Club, and in his catalogue of the Plants 

 of Ames. The number of species and varieties of the genus 

 Carex noted in these publications is as follows : 



Arthur, Cont. Fl. Iowa, i (1876), 39 



• "(1877). 1 



in (1878), 10 



iv (1S80), 5 



v (1882), 10 



. vi (1883). I 



(1889), I 



(1891), 5 



Hitchcock, Bull. Torr. Club, xvi, 89, 

 Hitchcock, Plants of Ames, additional, 



Total, . . . 



72 



This number should be somewhat reduced as several of the 

 varieties included in the above estimate are no longer recog- 

 nized. 



