Professor Dewey^s Caricography. 265 



Distinct as the species are seen tb be when once known, 

 many of them have so great a resemblance in the charac- 

 ters employed in descriptions, that it has been found no 

 easy matter to select such distinguishing characters, or to 

 describe the diagnostics with such precision, that the care- 

 ful botanist should not be led to erroneous conclusions* 

 The magnitude of this difficulty will be more fully appre- 

 ciated by considering the fact, that Linnaeus is generally 

 thought to have confounded some species, — that some 

 distinguished botanists of England certainly confounded 

 different species, — and that some of our most accurate ob- 

 servers have done the same, or have been obliged, upon 

 further examination, to alter their conclusions. It is this 

 difficulty which originated the works of Wahlemberg and 

 Schkuhr, mentioned already ; the Monograph of English 

 Carices by Dr. Goodenough ; the Caricographiam Scanen- 

 sem by Agardh ; and which renders a Monograph of the 

 Carices of the United States so desirable. Such a Mono- 

 graph of this genus is the more important, as there are 

 several species which have been confounded with others, 

 or have lately been discovered. Such a Monograph is 

 expected from that accurate botanist, Mr. Schweinitz. 



To aid the student I propose to mention some species of 

 Carex, described by European writers, but not yet credited 

 to our country, and to make some remarks upon some spe- 

 cies described by the most popular authors. 



Besides the works already mentioned, reference will be 

 made to Persoon's Synopsis, and Eaton's Manual of Bota- 

 ny ; and, for convenience, the reference will be made by 

 mentioning the name of the author. The specific names 

 are credited to the authors to whom they are ascribed by 

 Schkuhr. 



Carex teretiuscula. Goodenough. 



C. paniculata, ^ teretiuscula. Wahl. 



Schk. tab. D. fig. 19. and T. fig. 69. Pers. no. 76. 



C. " Spike twice or thrice compound, dense, rather 

 pointed; spikelets clustered; fruit spreading, gibbous; 

 stem roundish." — Rees' Cyc. 



As Wahlemberg considered this plant to be a variety of 

 C paniculata, L. he adds only the following character, 

 t-hyrse decompound, squarrose. Schkuhr, however, agreed 



Vol. VII.— No. 2. 34 



