Monograph of North American Varices, 343 



'1, sometimes 5, when young almost included in the sheaths, but at length 

 appearing: with somewhat exserted peduncles ; sheaths dark purplish 

 'Town, in young plants completely concealing the culm, the summit ter- 

 minating in an ovate cuspidate point, which is usually a little curved, very 

 rarely bearing a short leaf; glumes ovate, cuspidate, greenish, spread- 

 ing, rather shorter than the fruit. Fruit oblong, or elliptically trique- 

 trous, attenuate at the base, loosely arranged on the straight rachis 

 rostrum short, oblique, and entire. 



Hab. On shady parts of the Alleghany mountains, general- 

 ly in the west side; plentiful. In woods on the moun- 

 tainous parts of Massachusetts, particularly in Williams- 

 town. Dewey. Flowers in April and May. 

 Obs. Much confusion has prevailed respecting this Carex 

 and the following. The original C. plantaginea of La- 

 marck, winch to us appears to be a very distinct species is 

 comparatively rare, and has been seen by fe W botanists. 

 Ihe L. anceps in a particular state, when it has very broad 

 leaves, is by most persons confounded with that plant 

 There is no specimen of C. plantaginea in the Herbarium 

 of Dr. Muhlenberg, the species thus named by him bein- 

 decidedly C. anceps, as Dr. Torrey has ascertained. It 

 would appear that neither Schkuhr nor Willdenow were 

 acquainted with Lamarck's plant. The latter botanist re- 

 ceived from Muhlenberg, all the North American Carices 

 of which he has given descriptions, and the identical spe- 

 cimens were by him communicated to Schkuhr, who had 

 no others from this country. This fact was told us by Pro- 

 fessor Willdenow himself, a short time before his death 

 Still, his description of C. plantaginea, agrees pretty well 

 with our plant, and leads us to suspect that part of it was 

 copied from that of Lamarck, especially as he could 

 hardly have received the genuine C. plantaginea from 

 Muhlenberg. 



77. Cakex anceps, Muhlenberg. 

 C. spicis fertilibus, subtribus, remotis, subcylindricis, Iaxiflo- 

 vis.inferioribuspedunculatis; fructibus ovatis, obtuse tri- 



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