480 T. Holm — Studies in the Gyperacece. 



Car ex petasata Dew. 



According to Professor Bailey (1. c. p. 52) " the original 

 sheet of this species is in Herb. Torr. It contains three plants : 

 C. lagogina Wahl., G. f estiva Dew., and G. Liddoni Boott, 

 to all of which Dewey's description will equally apply/' For 

 this reason Professor Bailey does not think that G. petasata 

 " can be pressed into service," and although as he states him- 

 self, "C. Preslii is not clearly accounted for," and " the original 

 does not exist, either in the collection of Presl or Steudel," he 

 nevertheless adopts Steudel's name "in lieu of any other.'' It 

 may be that the specimens in Torrey's herbarium were mixed, 

 but there are several good examples of G. petasata in Boott's 

 herbarium, received from Dew^ey and authenticated by his 

 hand, and Mr. Clarke has informed us that these specimens 

 are not mixed. Consequently there is. no reason why the 

 name petasata should not be retained for this species, and the 

 diagnosis written by Dewey* reads as follows : 



" Spicis distigmaticis androgynis, inferne staminiferis subqua- 

 ternis ovato-oblongis cylindraceis subsessilibus approximatis ; 

 fructibus lato-lanceolatis utrinque acutis rostratis vel acuminatis 

 ore bifidis subalatis, squama lato-ovata subobtusa longioribus. 

 Culm 4-8 inches high, erect, slightly scabrous, triquetrous, 

 striate ; leaves shorter below, upper one about as long as the 

 culm ; .spikes androgynous staminate below, oblong cylindric, 

 about 4, short pedunculate, approximate, brownish ; fruit 

 broad lanceolate, acute at each end, acuminate or rostrate, 

 compressed, bifid and slightly winged, convex above ; scale 

 ovate, obtusish, tawny, broad, shorter than the fruit. Found 

 on the Rocky Mountains." 



Characteristic of the species is, thus, the ovate-oblong spikes, 

 which are short peduncled and approximate, but not sessile, 

 forming a head ; moreover the broadly lanceolate perigynia 

 tapering at both ends, and narrowly winged. Frequently the 

 spikes, especially the lower ones, are somewhat remote, very 

 distinctly peduncled and subtended by setiform bracts, thus 

 resembling G. pratensis Drej. — The perigynia are light brown 

 and faintly, though very distinctly, veined (about six veins on 

 the outer face). It would consequently be very unjust to con- 

 sider the specimens in Torrey's herbarium as being Dewey's 

 type. In the first place because Dewey did not work on types, 

 and secondly because his diagnosis by no means applies to the 

 three species which Professor Bailey found in said herbarium. 

 This may be readily seen from the fact that so far as concerns 

 G. lagopina, the perigynia of this species are ovate to almost 

 round, and never winged ; in (7. f estiva the spikes form a 

 * This Journal (1), vol. xxix, p. 246, 1836. 



