328 BOTANICAL GAZETTE. [ Dee., 
plant, being quite red in color after the outermost leaves are re- 
moved. They always carefully pick over the grass when brought 
home, stripping off the older, outer leaves which, they say, have 
no fragrance. 
In using the grass it is generally braided into strips as fine or 
as coarse as they require, and of any desired length, and is then 
woven into baskets and other fancy work. As it takes a good 
deal of time to pick the grass, dry and braid it, the Indians often 
buy it of those who gather and prepare it for sale, paying for it 
so much a pound. The wood used, which forms the main part of 
these articles, is white ash, Fraxinus Americana, and red maple, 
Acer rubrum, called in Maine white maple. These woods they 
prepare at home, splitting the ash into strips of the requisite 
thinness and width by means of a machine. The maple is used 
for the heavier parts, such as the frame work and handles. The 
pieces are stained with some coloring material and are then ready 
for use. Baskets and articles of that sort are always made over 
a block to preserve the shape, and I was told that it would be 
impossible to make a basket, with Sweet Grass in it, without 
a block, as the grass would draw the basket out of shape. I saw 
some very delicate specimens of weaving. They frequently use 
horse hair in making very small baskets for charms, being less 
than half an inch in width; the frame work is of ash and the 
weaving is almost microscopic. I noticed among the articles for 
sale in the Indian tent, some small boats, beautifully cut out of 
white cedar or arbor vitae, Thuja occidentalis, while the bark 
of the paper birch, Betula papyracea, was made into baskets, 
music rolls, ete. 
Notes on Carex. VIII.—Hybrids. 
L. H. BAILEY, Jk. 
( WITH PLATE XI.) 
CAREX ARCTATA X FLEXILIS. 
C. Knieskernii Dewey, Sill, Journ. 2d ser. ii. 247. ©. aretata formosa? 
Bailey, Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts and Sci. xxii. 104. 
In a recent trip to the northern boundary of Minnesota, 1 
found a quantity of this rare Carex and growing in such intimate 
association with Carex arctata and Carex flexilis that all doubt 
___ Was at once removed as to its parentage. I had long been confi- 
ce dent that the plant is a hybrid, and that Carex arctata is one of 
