FERNALD. — VARIATIONS OF BOREAL CARICES. 499 
The coarse American plant, C. communis, Bailey, which until recently 
passed as C. varia, presents, however, less definite marks of specific dis- 
tinctness. The most careful analysis of the characters which are sup- 
posed to separate C. communis (C. varia of authors) from C. pilulifera 
was published by Francis Boott, who inclined to regard the two species’ 
as separable. In his discussion of C. pilulifera, Boott said: “ A C. varia, 
uhl. [C. communis, Bailey], differt spicis confertis, plurifloris, subinde 
apice masculis, e viridi-purpureo variegatis ; perigyniis enerviis, rostello 
semper recto breviore bidentato ; basi styli persistente abrupte compresso- 
deflexa ; culmo incurvo, basi vaginis foliorum pallide ferrugineis tecto ; 
foliis viridibus.”* In discussing C. varia [C. communis, Bailey] he 
said: “A C. pilulifera differt inflorescentia laxa; spicis plus minus re- 
motis, laxifloris, saepe paucifloris; perigyniis subinde nervatis, rostro 
nune excurvato, bifido; basi styli persistente recta; vaginis foliorum 
purpureis.” 
When we analyze these supposed differences in the light of old speci- 
mens and the abundant modern ones which have accumulated since the 
publication of Dr. Boott’s work, certain traditional marks of separation 
fail. The large form of the American plant figured by Boott (t. 288) 
as C. varia, and treated by Bailey as C. communis and by Britton as C. 
pedicellata, has the spikelets more remote than in the common European 
form of C. pilulifera ; but a comparison of this plate with Lange’s illus- 
tration of his C. pilulifera, var. longibracteata (Fl. Dan. xvii. t. 8050 
and the figure of C. pilulifera, var. Leesti (Jour. Bot. xix. t. 218), shows 
that the rarest form of the European plant is not to be distinguished by 
the crowding of the spikelets from our larger form of C. communis. If, 
furthermore, we compare Boott’s C. varia, var. minor (t. 289), a common 
plant in America, with the smaller European specimens of C. pilulifera 
with slightly remote spikelets, no constant difference can be found to sepa- 
rate them. The plant in America passes by innumerable transitions to 
the coarsest form (var. longibracteata), as shown in the large middle speci- 
men in Boott’s t. 289, but in its extreme form, as shown by the smaller 
specimens in that plate, the spikelets are often subapproximate. <A 
comparison of this plate as well as scores of American specimens such as 
Eggleston’s no. 434 from Middlebury, Vermont; Brainerd’s material 
from Mt. Mosalamoo, Vermont; no. 4897b of the Biltmore Exsiccatae 
from Craggy Mt., North Carolina; Bailey’s material of June 13, 1888, 
from West Harrisville, Michigan, and his no. 187 from Lansing ; 
i Ti, IT. 06, 2 Ibid. 98. 
