T. Holm — Studies in the Cyperacem. 161 



such specimens the pistillate spikes are more slender and 

 longer than in the type : forma remota nob. Spiculse ? 

 magis distantes, cylindrical, longiores. 



Alaska : Growing in wet places near beach at Wrangell 

 and Howkan, and abundant near villages, Sitka (Walter 

 H. Evans) ; Seldovia (C. V. Piper) ; Popof Island, 

 Shumagin Islands (A. Saunders). Furthermore some 

 specimens from Vancouver Island may be described as : 

 Yar. 8 sphcsrochlcBna nob. 



Humilior ; spiculse 2 duse, fere sessiles, contiguse, cy- 

 lindrical; utriculi fusci, turgidi, divaricati. Vancouver 

 Island : Vicinity of Victoria (John Macoun). But other- 

 wise we have not observed any deviation from the de- 

 scription of the typical plant. And it is especially to be 

 pointed out that the scales of the pistillate flowers were 

 never mucronate or aristate ; they varied only from be- 

 ing oblong to oblong-lanceolate (figs. 4 and 6). The 

 perigynium is of a yellowish green color, faintly nerved, 

 or with no veins visible, broader, but much shorter than 

 the dark, purplish colored squama. This marked dif- 

 ference in color of squama and perigynium, and espe- 

 cially the greater width of the latter, is what Drejer 

 refers to, when he states (1. c. p. 48) : " nomen quoque 

 C. cryptocarpcz a facie plantse maturatae nimis abhorret, 

 quia perigynia turn minime teguntur, sed contra squamas 

 reflectunt, ita ut tota spica omnino squarrosa reddatur." 



Now concerning C. filipendula Drej. a variegata from 

 Iceland, this cannot be considered distinct from the typi- 

 cal C. cryptocarpa C. A. Mey., since the habit, and the 

 structure of squama and perigynium is the same; the 

 only difference depends on the Alaskan plant being more 

 robust. But with regard to the Greenland plant, 7 con- 

 color (Flora Danica vol. 40, Tab. 2372, 1843) this shows 

 a different habit, the culm being phyllopodic, the spikes 

 cylindric and quite remote, beside that the pistillate 

 scales are distinctly mucronate ("mucrone serrulato 

 brevi apicatae") ; the plant resembles in several respects 

 C. salina, of which certain varieties have been collected 

 in Finmark, which by Blytt and Boott were considered 

 intermediate between C. filipendula and salina. 



The geographical distribution of C. cryptocarpa is thus : 

 the shores of Bering Sea, of the northern Pacific ocean, 

 where it is quite abundant, and Iceland: "species in 

 paludibus et pratis vulgatissima (Japetus Steenstrup)." 



A near ally of C. cryptocarpa is the very local C. Lyng- 



