FERNALD. — VARIATIONS OF BOREAL CARICES, 505 
conspicuous elongated stolons, while C. pilulifera (C. communis) is 
caespitose, with short assurgent basal shoots. As may be implied, 
varieties of C. pennsylvanica based upon color of the spikelets are 
quite as inconstant as are those based upon the length or breadth of 
the leaf, or other purely vegetative tendencies. In the character of its 
perigynia, however, C. pennsylvanica presents three marked variations 
which, from the material examined, seem to belong to well marked 
geographic areas. These forms of the plant are: 
C. pennsytvanica, Lam. Dict. iii. 388. Strongly stoloniferous; 
the slightly caespitose small stools with reddish bases: leaves soft, com- 
paratively narrow, 1.5 to 3.5 mm. broad, 0.5 to 5 dm. long, shorter 
than, equalling, or often exceeding the slender culms: pistillate spike- 
lets 1 to 4, globose or ovoid, loosely flowered, approximate or more or 
less remote, the lowest rarely peduncled, often subtended by a narrow 
leafy bract: scales usually maroon or red-tinged, rarely pale: perigynia 
from subglobose to obovoid, puberulent, the short bifid beak one-fourth 
to one-fifth as long as the y: staminate spikelet clavate, 1 to 2 cm. 
long, sessile or short-stalked, usually reddish, rarely straw-colored. — In 
dry or sandy soil from Cumberland Co., Maine, to ALBERTA, south to 
Grorera and New Mexico. It is impossible to say from the original 
description whether this or the following variety was intended by 
amarck, but the commonest form of the species has been accepted 
as typical since it was so considered by Boott, Kunze, and other classic 
writers on the genus. The varieties and forms described by Peck 
(46 Rep. N. Y. Mus. Nat. Hist. 51; 48 ‘Rep. 76) appear to be vegeta- 
tive states due largely to different degrees of light and exposure. 
Var. lucorum. Perigynium puberulent or glabrate, with a con- 
spicuous slender beak nearly or quite as long as the body. — C. ducorum, 
Willd. Enum. Pl. Berol. Suppl. 63; Kunze, Car. 153, t. 39; Boott, 
Ill. ii, 98, t. 291, in part. — Maine to Micnican and “ Arctic 
America,” and in the mountains to NortH Carona. Marne, 
Orono, May 31, 1890, June 4, 1898 (no. 2006) — M. L. Fernald; 
Cambridge (F. S. Bunker); Glassface Mt., Rumford, July 13, 1890 
(J. C. Parlin): New Hamesuire, Barrett Mt, New Ipswich, June 5, 
1896 (M. ZL. Fernald): Vermont, Chipman Hill, Middlebury, May 30, 
1897, Burlington, June ¢6, 1898 (Z. Brainerd) ; Pownal, May 29, 1898 
(J. R. Churchill): Massacuusetts, Spot Pond, Stoneham, May 29, 
1855, Malden, June 11, 1861, Medford, May 21, 1865, Blue Hills, Milton, 
June 3, 1870 (Wm. Boott); Purgatory Swamp, Dedham, May 26, 187 
(4 § C. £. Faxon); Wilmington, May 14, 1899 (£. F. Williams): 
