Monograph of North American Car ices. SSi 



6'chkuhr's monograph, which contained remarkably accurate 

 coloured figures of nearly all the species described by Will- 

 denow, to which he added several new ones sent from Penn- 

 sylvania by Muhlenberg. In 1804, several North American 

 Carices were described by Rudge, in the Transactions of the 

 Linnaan Society, accompanied by very correct figures. The 

 Flora America Septentrionalis of Pursh, which contains de- 

 scriptions of sixty-four species of Carex, was published in 

 London in 1814. It is very evident that this author has not 

 bestowed much care upon the genus. He has introduced a 

 number of European species, which have never been found 

 by our most assiduous botanists, even when he asserts them 

 to be very common. The greater part of these have been 

 omitted in the following monograph. 



Muhlenberg's posthumous work, entitled u Descriptio uberior 

 graminum et plant, calamariarwn America Septentrionalis," 

 was published in 1817. In this work fifty-nine species of 

 Carex are described. The descriptions of this author are 

 very accurate as far as they go, being all taken from speci- 

 mens which he had examined himself, but his work appears 

 to be a mere sketch of what he intended to have made it. 

 Still it is particularly valuable ; all his species being identical 

 with those of Willdenow and Schkuhr.* 



The Genera of North American plants by Nuttall, pub- 

 lished in 1818, enumerates sixty-eight species of Carex. 

 Three of these are new and very accurately described. The 

 author would doubtless have much increased their number^ 

 had not his labours been more directed to investigating the 

 plants of the southern and western parts of our country, 

 where the species of this genus are comparatively rare. 

 Though the number of North American Carices is now so 



• I had the good fortune to receive from Muhlenberg- specimens of the 

 greater part of his species. 



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