286 Monograph of North. American Cwiee*. 



prevent individual peculiarities from misleading ; and it' this 

 be done, the inconstancy complained of will be found by no 

 means so great as is frequently imagined. 



The North American species of Carex have been much 

 neglected by botanists until within the last few years. Lin- 

 naeus scarcely describes any other as peculiar to this country 

 than C. squarrosa and folliculata . Walter in his Flora Caro- 

 liniana, published in 1 788, gave short and imperfect descrip- 

 tions of eleven species. Lamarck described five new North 

 American species in his Encyclopedic methodique, published in 

 1789. In 1803, Wahlenberg published in the Acta Holm. 

 (Kong, svenska vetenskaps academiens Handlingar,) for 1803 

 a monography of the genus Carex, in which he described 

 twelve new species from this country. About the same time 

 appeared the Flora Boreali-Americana of Michaux, containing 

 twenty-two species, of which seventeen were considered by 

 that botanist as new, but his descriptions are so incomplete, 

 that it is impossible, in many cases, to ascertain with certainty 

 the species he intended to designate. The author does not 

 appear to have been acquainted with the excellent Beschrei- 

 bung der Reidgraser of Schkuhr, the first part of which was 

 published at Leipsic in 1802. As regards the North Ameri- 

 can species, although Schkuhr did not enjoy an opportunity 

 of examining living specimens, he has, with few exceptions, 

 been very happy in a just description of the species, and his 

 accurate figures are an almost infallible guide in recognising 

 what he describes. The first part of his work, however, is 

 very deficient in American species. In 1805, vol. IV. part 

 I. of Willdenow's Species Plant arum was published. This con- 

 tained descriptions of forty-two North American Carices, 

 most of which were sent to the author by the late Dr. Muhlen- 

 berg of Lancaster in Pennsylvania. Many of these species 

 were previously determined and named by Muhlenberg him- 

 self, but others were left to be settled by his friend and corres- 

 pondent. Tn 1806 appeared the second part or volume of 



