Note on Carex loliacea. 19 
cient signs of extrinsic extirpating change or convulsion, makes 
it almost as reasonable to speculate with Brocchi,* on the possi- 
bility that species like individuals may have had the cause of their 
death inherent in their original constitution, independently of 
changes in the external world, and that the term of their exist- 
ence, or the period of exhaustion of the prolific force, may have 
been ordained from the commencement of each species. 
Arr. I11.— Note upon Carer loliacea, Linn., and C. gracilis, Ehth. ; 
by A. Gray. 
Unver the name of Carer loliacea, two distinct species have 
long been confounded, which, although they have been of late 
to some extent distinguished, yet their history and synonymy 
still require elucidation. 
_ Linneus established his C. loliacea upon a Swedish plant, 
indicated in the Fora Suecica, No. 840, to which the specific 
hame was first applied in the Species Plantarum, with the 
“CC. spiculis subovatis sessilibus remotis androgynis, 
capsulis ovatis teretiusculis muticis divaricatis.” He further de- 
scribes it as having from four to eight small ovate spikelets scat- 
tering at the apex of the culm, and the perigynia “ovate, obtuse, 
pointless, and rounded on the lower side ;” and proceeds to com- 
pare it with C. muricata, (which as to the Flora Suecica, is sta- 
ted by Wahlenberg to be the C. stellulata, G’ood.,) from which it 
is said to differ in its smaller size, and in the less divaricate ob- 
tuse fruit. I suppose that there is no authentic specimen pre- 
served in the Linnean herbarium. 
Tn the year 1802, Schkuhr figuredt and described what he, 
With much hesitation, took for C. loliacea, remarking however 
that this Linnean species was a very doubtful plant, and that 
What he had taken for it was probably only a variety of C. mu- 
Neata ; which seems to have been the case. | 
In the next year the real C. loliacea was, as I suppose, correctly 
taken up by Wahlenberg, a botanist most likely to know the 
Linnzean plant, who well characterized it as follows: ” C. spiculis 
basi masculis subdistantibus ternis paucifloris, squamis brevibus, 
capsulis subovali-ellipticis utrinque convexiusculis obtusis obtus- 
angulis divaricatis, ore integerrimo, bracteolis setigeris, foliis an- 
gustissimis,” = tape Pe 
Th 1805, Willdenow gave a new phrase, viz. “C. spica andro- 
gyna composita, spiculis subquaternis inferne masculis subapprox- 
Imatis, stigmatibus binis, fructibus ellipticis obtusis nervosis com- 
Sa Weesgrenyl eng Maps al Ee eS ae 
Png by Lyell, “ Principles of Geology: (1835,) vol. iii, p- 104. 
eidgr. t. Ee, No. 91. ¢ Wahlenb. in Act. Holm. 1803. p. 147. 
? 
