T. Holm — Studies in the Gyperacece. 313 



collected at several stations on the Alaskan coast, sometimes 

 associated with its near ally, G subspathacea Wormskj. 



Car ex hcematolepis Drej. 



Described by Drejer* as follows : " Spica mascnla 1, femin. 

 3-5 elongatis cylindraceis laxifloris in pedunculo lsevi valido 

 erectinsculis v. demum nutantibus, squamis ovatis acutis serru- 

 lato-mucronnlatis perigynia ovali-ovata snbstipitata subsuper- 

 antibus, stigmatibus 2-3". u Squamae $ atro-sanguinese tenuis- 

 sime punctulatse nervo tenuissimo discolore, ovatse, acutse serru- 

 lato-aristatse v. muticse, perigynia fere tegentes et superantes. 

 Perigynia obsolete nervata decolora stramineo-viridia, rostro 

 brevissimo integro." Only known from Greenland, but may 

 be found on the northeastern coasts of this continent. It 

 shows some resemblance to G cryptocarpa, but differs from this 

 by the nearly erect pistillate spikes, the mucronate scales and 

 the much narrower perigynia. 



Car ex cryptocarpa C. A. Mey. 



To American botanists this species is so well known and 

 well understood that it should hardly be necessary to make 

 any further mention of it as a little known species. However 

 in a recently published paper dealing with Arctic Garices,\ the 

 species is enumerated as identical with G Lyngbyei Hornem., 

 with C. filipendula Drej. and with C. capillipes Drej. and 

 has received the new name C. Lyngbyei Hornem., this being 

 older than the name of Meyer. If now the diagnosis of these 

 four formerly recognized species had been drawn up so as to 

 demonstrate their identity, we should have no objection to 

 make, but it seems to us that a comparison of the plants them- 

 selves and the original diagnoses makes it rather unnatural to 

 combine them as only one, a fact that becomes more evident 

 when we examine the renewed description of C. Lyngbyei 

 (I. c). , 



Habitually these four species are somewhat like each other, 

 but C. cryptocarpa is readily distinguished by being very 

 robust with broad . leaves and heavy spikes, while the others, 

 especially G. Lyngbyei, is exceedingly slender in all its parts. 

 The specific characters are, however, to be drawn from the 

 structure of the scales of the pistillate spike and of the perigy- 

 nium, and we have noticed the following distinctions : The 

 scale is in G. cryptocarpa : oblong to oblong-lanceolate, acute 

 with a broad midvein ; in G Lyngbyei : lanceolate with the 

 midvein extended into a very long, serrulate awn ; in Gfili- 



* Eevisio critica Caricum borealiuin (Naturliist. Tidsskr. Kjobenhavn 1841). 

 f Ostenfeld, C. H., Flora Arctica, Copenhagen, 1902, p. 75. 



