20 1\ Holm — Studies in the CyjperacecB. 



rated as " hebetatse," are some, which are also characteristic of 

 the Western States, e. g., C. Geyeri and C. multicaulis, while 

 C. ■polytrichoides is rare in that part of the continent, but 

 abundant in the East, on the Atlantic slope. 



Car ex scirpoidea Michx. 



The original diagnosis reads : " C. planifolia, dioica," spica 

 unica, imbricato-cylindrica : capsulis dense pubescentibus, Hab. 

 ad sinnm Sudsonis."* 



The first specimens known were thus monostachyous, but 

 since tben the species has been observed as being, and not very 

 uncommonly so, distachyous : with a small, lateral spike, 

 staminate in the staminate plant, pistillate in the pistillate, 

 developed in the axil of a bract, which is always noticeable in 

 a short distance below the terminal spike, as already mentioned 

 by Drejer, who observed this peculiarity in Greenland speci- 

 mens. The geographical distribution has been widely extended 

 from Hudson Bay throughout the continent towards the 

 Atlantic and Pacific slope, as far south as Colorado and Cali- 

 fornia, besides that the species has been recorded from Green- 

 land and even from the mountains of northern Norway, where 

 it, however, seems to be very rare. It is very natural that a 

 species, so widely dispersed, exhibits some variation, and as 

 indicated in the enumeration of the species the Chilliwack 

 plant deviates to some extent from the typical, the one from 

 Hudson Bay, wmich is, also, the most commonly met with. 

 We have, furthermore, noticed some peculiarities in the Cali- 

 fornian plant, which seem to warrant the proposition of some 

 varieties. The variation, however, seems confined to the struc- 

 ture of the utricle rather than to the relative size of the plant, 

 its robustness, the outline of the spike, etc., characters that 

 seem too variable to be depended upon in any species of the 

 genus. The Chilliwack plant may be described as follows : 



var. stenochlcena nob. 



A very tall and slender plant with the pistillate spike clavate, 

 loose flowered, especially at the base, the perigynium (fig. 7) 

 longer and much narrower than in the type, spreading, very 

 densely pubescent, with the orifice of the beak entire, ciliate ; 

 stigmata 3. Also collected in Alaska : Juneau and by Yes Bay. 



var. gigas nob. (fig. 8). 



Spikes mostly 2, very robust and dense-flowered ; the num- 

 ber of bracts sometimes 3 (2 empty) ; perigynium broader 

 than in the type, loosely pubescent and distinctly many-nerved, 

 orifice of the beak as in the type,'bidentate : stigmata 2 or 3, 



* Michaux : Flora boreali- Americana, ii, 171. 



