T. Holm — Studies in the Cyperacem. 483 



remembered that the minor structure of the perigynium in 

 Car ex is seldom noticeable in the dried state, but readily visi- 

 ble in fresh material or by soaking the dried specimen in boil- 

 ing water and alcohol. In pointing out some of the most 

 striking characters of this species we might mention ; the long 

 and slender, blackish purple spikes, the oblong-obovate, mucro- 

 nate squamae, sometimes emarginate, which are longer than 

 the faintly nerved, oblong-obovate perigynia ; furthermore the 

 short beak with entire orifice. 



Let us now consider some of the other plants which formerly 

 have been referred to C. Barbaras, but which we believe are 

 distinct from this. There are, for instance, in the Gray herba- 

 rium some specimens, and very well represented, of a Carex, 

 which are named C. Barbarce in Dewey's own handwriting; 

 they are from Hayden's collection and the localities are given 

 as ; " Lake Fork, 6,000 ft. above the sea, also on Madi- 

 son River,'' " and near Fort ? (the name written very indis- 

 tinctly), high on Rocky Mountains." A note attached to these 

 specimens and signed S. T. O. (Stephen T. Olney) reads : 

 " These specimens are unlike those so named in Mex. Bound. 

 Survey. Doctor Dewey had marked one of these (the former) 

 C. stricta Good., to which they possibly belong." We can 

 only agree with Olney that these specimens are quite distinct 

 from 0. Barbarce vera, but we prefer to place them under C. 

 ^febraskensis Dew. var. praevia Bail. In his treatment of 

 Car ex in King's Report,* Olney referred C Barbarce to F. 

 Boott's C Prescottiana^ as a synonym, but Boott's species is 

 very different from that of Dewey ; it, also, deserves notice 

 that Olney in the same paper refers C. Sitchensis Dew. not of 

 Prescott as synonym of C. laciniata, which shows very plainly 

 that Olney was not acquainted with the real C. Sitchensis 

 Presc, but that he mistook C Sitchensis Boott for this 

 species, while Dewey segregated Hooker's and Boott's C. 

 Sitchensis as his C. magnified. Another specimen Which is 

 also incorporated in the Gray herbarium is by Dewey labelled 

 C. Sitchensis Presc. ; it was collected by Professor Wood in 

 swamps near Los Angeles, California. This specimen differs 

 from C. Barbarce by the pistillate squamae being merely acute, 

 the mid vein being not excurrent, besides by the shortness of 

 the scales in proportion to the perigynium ; from typical C. 

 Sitchensis this specimen differs only by the presence of a few, 

 faint nerves on the outer face of utricnlus. Professor Bailey 

 has, nevertheless, identified this plant as representing C Bar- 

 barce. While Mr. Parish had the good fortune of rediscover- 



* U. S. Geol. Explor. of the 40th Parallel, p. 361, 1871. 

 f Caricis species novae, vel minus cognitae. (Transact. Linn. Soc, vol. 

 xx, p. 135, 1845-46. 



