484 T. Holm — Studies hi the Cyperaceas. 



ing the rare C. Barbaras, as stated above, he has also collected 

 another species of very robust habit, which, however, does not 

 appear identical with Dewey's plant. As a matter of fact, 

 this tall Carex distributed as C. Barbaras* resembles much 

 more the real C. Sitchensis Presc, but the perigynia are dis- 

 tinctly nerved, very large, and considerably longer than the 

 squamae. If the perigynia had been smaller, merely two-nerved 

 and scabrous along the upper margins, the species might have 

 been referable to 0. dives. 



In the herbarium of the U. S. National Museum we found 

 several specimens identilied by recent authors as C. JBarbarce 

 Dew., but only the specimen mentioned above, collected by Mr. 

 Parish (No. 3276) and some immature ones from Sanger, 

 Fresno county, California, collected by Dr. J. W. Hudson, 

 represent this species; the others were C. amplifolia Boott, 

 C. Schottii Dew., C. laciniata Boott, etc. 



As received by Professor Baileyt 0. Barbaras should be 

 identical with 0. Schottii Dew., which actually is C. obnupta 

 Bail., furthermore with the plant which Dewey himself had 

 called C. Sitchensis, and with a third species from Washing- 

 ton and Vancouver Island, which by the writer has been 

 described as C. dives.% The fact that Professor Bailey con- 

 siders C. Barbarw a close ally of C. aquatilis Wahl. is a sad 

 illustration of how easily a good species might be lost sight 

 of ; because none of the allies of C. aquatilis "Wahl. possess 

 squamse and perigynia -of the structure as is characteristic of 

 0. Barbaras. "We must admit, however, that the structure of 

 both squamse and perigynia is somewhat variable in a number 

 of Carices, and especially among Carices genuinas ; the ner- 

 vation of the perigynium is not always equally developed, and 

 the apex of the squama may vary from acute to mucronate or 

 even aristate. But, on the other hand, we do not remember a 

 single instance where within the same species the apex of the 

 squama varies from obovate, mucronate and sometimes emar- 

 ginate to oblong-lanceolate and simply pointed ; for this rea- 

 son the writer does not feel inclined to remodel the original 

 diagnosis of C. Barbaras in order to include the several more 

 or less distinct species, as has been done by recent authors. 

 According to our opinion, the specimen of Dewey's own col- 

 lection and those of Mr. Parish (No. 3276), which we have 

 cited above, these are sufficiently instructive for demonstrating 

 the species as understood by Dewey ; all the other plants must 

 be referred to other species. 



* Southern California: Damp land, meadows or swamps, alt. circa 300 m. 

 San Bernardino Valley, No. 5981, March 9, 1907. 

 f Memoirs Torrey Bot. Club, vol. i, p. 44, 1889. 

 X This Journal (4), xvii, p. 312, 1904. 



