508 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 
and other caricologists identical with the European; but in 1866 the 
New York plant was distinguished by Dewey, on account of its tall 
slender culm, narrow leaves and loose spikelets as var. alto-eaulis. In 
1889, however, Professor Bailey raised the American plant to specific 
rank as C. saltuensis, separating it from the European C. vaginata “ by 
its much more slender and less caespitose habit, narrower leaves and 
less conspicuous sheaths, its alternately-flowered spikes, and its much 
smaller, less inflated, and conspicuously nerved perigynium.” And Dr. 
Britton, following Professor Bailey’s lead in treating the plant as 
strictly American, has taken up for it Dewey’s varietal name as 
altocaulis (not alto-caulis). 
That American specimens from the deep swamps of western New 
York, Ontario and Michigan are more slender than some European 
specimens there can be no doubt; but in northeastern Maine, where the 
plant is a common species of arbor-vitae swamps, it varies greatly in 
these characters. Individuals growing in excessive shade are naturally 
taller and more slender than those in bright light ; and the spikelets 
vary indiscriminately from the slender alternate-flowered tendency sup- 
posed to characterize the American plant to the dense-cylindric form 
said to distinguish the European. 
The height of the European plant, too, is often as great as that of the 
American, while our own plant sometimes fruits when scarcely 2 dm. 
high (Mt. Albert, Quebec — Allen ; Blaine, Maine — Fernald). A spec!- 
men from Christiania collected by Blytt is 5 dm. high, while the extreme 
height given by Dr. Britton for his C. altocaulis is 2 feet (6 dm.). 
The breadth of the leaf, likewise, is as variable on one continent as 00 
the other. Both Dewey and Bailey have maintained that the European 
plant is broader-leaved; yet a specimen from Fries collected in Jemtland 
(Sweden) has leaves from 1.5 to 1.75 mm. wide, while the broadest 
leaves seen on the European plant are those of a Lapland specimen 
(5 mm. wide) from N. J. Andersson. In the American plant the leaves 
vary from 1.5 mm. wide (Blaine, Maine) to 5 mm. (Montreal). 
The variation in the density of the spikelet in the American plant has 
been already mentioned. In Europe the same variation occurs, spec 
mens from Jemtland (Adlberg), Lapland (Andersson) and Finland 
(Lehmann) having the spikelets as loosely flowered as in the most 
extreme American form. : 
Nor are the differences assigned by Professor Bailey to the perigy sas 
_ maintained in mature specimens. Young individuals of the American 
_ as well as the European plant have the nerves poorly developed, but 1 
