Holm — Studies in the Cyperaceae. 17 



Aet. III. — Studies in the Cyperacece; by Theo. Holm. 

 XXVII. Notes on Carex podocarpa R. Br., C. Monta- 

 nensis Bail., C. venustula Holm, C. Lemmoni W. Boott, 

 and C. cequa Clarke. (With 12 figures drawn from 

 nature by the author.) 



Carex podocarpa R. Br. 



When. Robert Brown was engaged in identifying Dr. 

 Richardson's arctic plants, a specimen of the genus 

 Carex attracted his attention on account of the nut being 

 stipitate; upon this specimen, which was rather imma- 

 ture, he established the species C. podocarpa. At that 

 time the structure of the nut in Carex was but very 

 imperfectly known, since most authors confined them- 

 selves to describing the structure of the perigynium 

 (utriculus) alone. Otherwise the specimen showed no 

 character of particular interest, and the diagnosis pre- 

 sented by Robert Brown is very brief. By Boott the 

 specimen became illustrated in Hooker's Flora Boreali- 

 Americana (vol. 2, tab. 224), and this figure together with 

 the diagnosis does enable us to get some idea of the plant, 

 of the species it was intended for. And although being 

 a small, rather inconspicuous plant, C. podocarpa has 

 nevertheless been accepted, and not infrequently so, as 

 identical with such stately species as C. macrochceta C. 

 A. Mey, and C. spectabilis Dew. 1 



The fact that very recently 2 the species has been rede- 

 scribed and attributed such characters as the original 

 plant never possessed, may render the following supple- 

 mental note acceptable. Naturally the name of the 

 author, who proposed the species, has carried great 

 weight, and now for nearly a century the species has been 

 faithfully accepted, figuring prominently in lists of plants 

 from the boreal regions of North America and Eastern 

 Asia. No author, so far, has ever suspected that C. 

 podocarpa was described and named — but of course with 

 a different name — before Robert Brown proposed it as 

 a new species. However, the material brought together 

 of what has been supposed to be C. podocarpa has proved 



1 Macoun, John: Catalogue of Canadian plants, Part IV, p. 149, Mon- 

 treal, 1888. 



2 Kiikenthal Georg : Cyperacece — Caricoidece in A. Engler ' ' Das Pflanzen- 

 reich, Leipzig, 1909. 



Am. Jour. Sci.— Fourth Series, Vol. XLVI1I, No. 283.— July, 1919. 

 2 



