Professor Dewey’s Caricography. 265 
Distinct as the species are seen to be when once known, 
many of them have so great a resemblance in the charac- 
ters employed in descriptions, that it has been found no 
easy matter to select such distinguishing characters, or to 
describe the diagnostics with such precision, that the care- 
ful botanist should not be led to erroneous conclusions. 
The magnitude of this difficulty will be more fully appre- 
ciated by considering the fact, that Linneus is generally 
thought to have confounded some species,—that some 
distinguished botanists of England certainly confounded 
different species,—and that some of our most accurate ob- 
servers have done the same, or have been obliged, upon 
further examination, to alter theif conclusions. It is this 
difficulty which originated the works'of Wahlemberg and 
Schkuhr, mentioned already; the Monograph of English 
Carices by Dr. Goodenough ; the phat A ant Scanen- 
sem by Agardh; and which renders a Monograph of the 
Carices of the United States so desirable. Such a Mono- 
graph of this genus is the more important, as there are 
several species which have been confounded with others, 
or have lately been discovered. Such a Monograph is 
expected from that accurate botanist, Mr. Schweinitz. 
-'To aid the student I propose to mention some species of 
Carex, described by European writers, but not yet credited 
to our country, and to make some remarks upon some spe- 
cies described by the most popularauthors, = = 
Besides the works already mentioned, reference w ll be 
made to Persoon’s Synopsis, and Eaton’s Manual of Bota- 
ny; and, for convenience, the reference will be made by 
mentioning the name of the author. The specific names 
are credited to the authors to whom they are ascribed by 
Schkuhr. 22 
Carex teretiuscula. eae a sate 
Ci paniculata, 8 tereteuscula. Wane 
; P'Schk tab. D. fig. 19. and T. fig- 69. Pers. no. 76. 
C. «§ ike tWwite of thrice compou d, dense, rather 
Pointed ; epics clustered; fruit spreading, gibbous ; 
stem roundish.”—Rees’ Cyc. : 
As Wablemberg considered this plant to be a variety of 
C. paniculata, L. he adds only the following character, 
3 Ae. ; ee i 
thyrse decompound, squarrose. Schkuhr, however, 
~ Vor, VIL—No. 2. ro an 
