OATALOQTTE of CANADIAN TtANtS. 38t 



Below is Prof. Bailey's arrangement of the species, and I agree with 

 his remark that " whatever future observers may decide as to the 

 merits of the varieties I propose, the disposition suggested cannot fail 

 to make the species better known." My difficulties are all cleared away 

 by the arrangement, but var. major may be Michaux's tj'pe. 



"Culm very slender but erect (12 to 18 in. high), smooth or slightly 

 rough above on the angles ; leaves narrow, often almost filiform, rough 

 on the edges, mostly shorter than the culm ; staminate spikes one or 

 two, elevated an inch or more from the upper pistillate spike, very 

 narrow, an inch or less long; pistillate spikes one to three, the upper 

 one sessile and the lower very short-stalked, small (f in. or less long), 

 the lowest subtended by a bract which usually exceeds it; perigynium 

 very small, broadly or round-ovate or ovate-oblong; thin but firm in 

 texture, bearing a nerve upon either angle, but otherwise nerveless or 

 sometimes bearing a few very faint nerves near the base, rounded into 

 a very short and terete beak which is either entire or somewhat erose ; 

 pistillate scales brown, lance-ovate, ending in a sharp whitish tip which 

 nearly or quite equals the perigynium." Island in the Saguenay Eiver, 

 near Lake St. John, Que. {A. H. Smith.) Drury's Cove, St. John, 

 N.B. {Herb. Gray.) Near St. John, N.B., 1817. (Prof. Fowler.) 

 Newfoundland. {La Pylaie, Herb. Gray.) ' 



Var. obtusa, Bailey, Mem. Torr. Bot. Club, I., 36. 



'' Culm mostly shorter and even more slender ; pistillate spikes much 

 smaller (from ^ in. long to smaller and globular), closely sessile ; pistil- 

 late scale -vevj obtuse, little if any more than half the length of the 

 perigynium." Marguerite River, Que. {A. H. Smith, fide Bailey.) 

 One small specimen received from Prof Fowler, collected at Kenne- 

 beckasis, N.B , June 30th, 1878, is this variety. The others are the 

 type. (Macoun.) 



Var. major, Bailey, Mem. Torr. Bot. Club, I., 36. 



"Much stouter (often fully two feet high), the culm thick and very 

 sharply angled ; leaves stout and canaliculate or involulate ; staminate 

 spikes short stalked ; pistillate spikes one to five, mostly short-oblong, 

 but often cylindrical (varying from J to 1 J in. long), stout and very 

 dark and dull-brown, the lower one or two short-peduncled ; scale vary- 

 ing from wholly obtuse to muticous." Lake Mistassini, N.E.T., 1885. 

 (J. M. Macoun.) Jupiter Eiver, Anticosti, Q., 1883. (Macoun.) 

 Ungava Bay, Labrador, 1884. (Turner.) 



