



I 



stood. It IS therefore evident that any further changes in the 

 names of our species must be almost entirely such as rest upon 

 judgments of the systematic merits of accepted species and 

 varieties. 



The writer upholds the use of the oldest published name or 

 combination, in every instance. This principle is applied to the 

 names of varieties with the same care as to those of species. He 

 also adopts a particular variety as the type of each variable 

 species, rather than use the specific name as a loose and collec- 

 tive appellation for all the forms of the species. This type, in 

 every case, so far as originals exist, is the form which the author 

 first described, independently of any apparent indications as to 

 its relative importance. Thus some of our common species are 

 emended ; e, g.\ Carex strmnifiea^ C. laxijlora, C, striata, C, de- 



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biliSy C, salina, and others. The writer has given varietal names 

 only to those forms which assume a considerable degree of 

 permanence under various conditions, and the combining of which 

 would lead to confusion in the knowledge of the species. He 

 has no sympathy with that ultra-refinement of classification which 

 gives names to specimens rather than to species and their larger 

 variations. Such refinements serve no useful purpose, and do 

 not merit the name of science. Few plants possess more clearly 

 marked characteristics than do the Carices, when once the species 

 are well understood and allowance is made for incidental varia- 

 tions; but when these incidental variations are confined by written 

 descriptions and dignified by names, confusion unavoidably arises. 

 The collections to which the writer has had access are as fol- 

 lows, the abbreviation in the parenthesis being the character by 

 which each is designated in the text below: i. The collection of 

 Linnaeus (Hb. Linn.), deposited with the Linnsean Society, Picca- 

 dilly, London. The carices are comprised in three small fascicles, 

 and are well preserved. Many of them possess little value, how- 

 ever, owing to the fact that they are not the specimens which 

 Linnseus described. Some oi the specimens are not named. 2. 

 The large and valuable herbarium of Dr. Francis Boott (Hb. 

 Boott.), now forming a part of the collections of Kew. 3. The 

 herbarium of John Carey (Hb. Carey.), also at Kew. 4. That of 

 Samuel Goodenough (Hb. Kew.), and, 5, of J. Gay (Hb. Kew.), both 



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