The Sedges of Nebraska 3 



any study at all. Then when you have several hundred sheets 

 and have leisure for slow work, study them for the prime object 

 of segregating them into groups of closely related forms, such as 

 (for instance) Carex parryana, fusca, stricta, nebraskensis and 

 aquatilis, all Nebraska species. My own herbarium contains 516 

 sheets of Carex alone, representing over 160 species. You can get 

 no intelligent view of so large and difficult a genus without this 

 kind of work. The subgenus Vignea is probably more difficult 

 than Eucarex, and the straminea group the hardest of all. It is 

 better to leave these until some experience has been gained in 

 other parts of the genus ; but collect everything. You will never 

 regret it, if you really become a sedge student. In order to see 

 clearly the finer markings of the smaller achenes (about a half 

 a millimeter in length) use a magnifier of 20 diameters. The 

 cross striations and tubercular markings will be most interesting. 



The Present Treatment of the Subject 



The object of this bulletin is to bring our Nebraska sedges into 

 critical relation with our latest manuals and with the studies of 

 this subject that have been made and are now making in neighbor- 

 ing states. I have followed the order of Britton's Manual, because 

 it contains practically all of our species. I have followed his no- 

 menclature for convenience, except where Gray's seemed more in 

 accordance with the facts as shown by our plants. It makes 

 no difference to me whether I say Carex fusca or buxbaumii, but 

 it makes much difference whether I say Carex haydeni or Carex 

 stricta decora. I have used this discrimination several times. 



I have given the county once for each citation of a locality, and 

 several times where special emphasis on the locality of rare or 

 otherwise important plants seemed to call for it. Credit has been 

 given to herbaria rather than to collectors by name. The Seminar 

 Herbarium of the State University has sedges contributed by 

 Smith and Pound, H. J. Webber, Pound and Clements, J. J. 

 Thornber, P. J. O'Gara, P. A. Rydberg, Bates, Hapeman, and 

 several others. It has saved time and space to credit these simply 

 "(Uni.)." Dr. Hapeman's own collection is marked "(Hape- 

 man)" and mine "(Bates)." Our plants are found in all three by 



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