CATALOGTTE OP OANATIIA!^ ?T,ANTS. 38? 



Below is Prof. Bailcj^'s arrangement of the speries, and I agree with 

 his remark that "whatever future ohsei-vers ma}' decide as to the 

 merits of the varietiea 1 propose, the disposition suggested cannot fail 

 to make the species better known." My difficulties are all cleared awaj^ 

 by the arrangement, but var. major may boMichaux's tj-pe. 



"Culm very slender but erect (12 to 18 in. high), smooth or slightly 

 rough above on the angles; leaves narrow, often almost filiform, rough 

 on the edges, mostly shorter than the culm ; staminato spikes one or 

 two, elevated an inch or more from the upper pistillate spike, very 

 narrow, an inch or less long ; pistillate spikes one to three, the upper 

 one sessile and the lower very short-stalked, small (^ in. or less long), 

 the lov^est subtended by a bract which usually exceeds it; perig^-nium 

 very small, broadly or round-ovate or ovate-oblong; thin but firm in 

 texture, bearing a nerve upon either angle, but otherwise nerveless or 

 sometimes bearing a few very faint nerves near the base, rounded into 

 a very short and terete beak which is either entire or somewhat erose ; 

 pistillate scales brown, lance-ovate, ending in a sharp whitish tip which 

 nearly or quite equals the perigj'nium." Island in the Saguenay River, 

 near Lake St. John, Que. (A. H. Sviith.) Drury's Cove, St. John, 

 N.B. {Herb. Gray.) Near St. John, N.B., 1877. (Prof. Fowler.) 

 Newfoundland. {La Pylaie, Hirb. Gray.) 



Var. obtusa, Bailey, Mem. Torr. Bot. Club, I., 36. 



" Culm mostly shorter and even more slender ; pistillate spikes much 

 smaller (from k in. long to smaller and globular), closely sessile; pistil- 

 late scale verj' obtuse, little if any more than half the length of the 

 perigyniura." Marguerite River, Que. (^■1. H. Smith, fide Bailey.) 

 One small specimen received from Prof Fowler, collected at Kenne- 

 beckasis, N.B , June 3(lth, 1878, is this variety. The others are the 

 type. (Macoun.) 



Var. major, Bailey, Mem. Torr. Bot. Club, I., 36. 



"Much stouter (often fully two feet high), the culm thick and very 

 sharply angled ; leaves stout and canaliculate or involulate ; staminate 

 spikes short stalkeil; pistillate spikes one to five, mostly short-oblong, 

 but often cylindrical (varj'ing from ^ to li in. long), stout and verj^ 

 dai-k and dull-brown, the lower one or two short-peduncled ; scale vary- 

 ing from wholly obtuse to muticous." Lake Mistassini, N.E.T., 1885. 

 (J. M. Macoun.) Jupiter River, Anticosti, Q., 1883. (Macoun.) 

 Ungava Bay, Labrador, 1884. (Turner.) 



