20 Holm — Studies in the Cyperaceae. 



although there were some, which were identical with 

 specimens named so by other authors. However, to make 

 certain about this matter we asked C. B. Clarke at Kew 

 for assistance, and it is through his kindness that we are 

 able to offer the following, valuable information, written 

 in a letter dated April 16th, 1902 : ' 'I find that Richardson 

 n. 370 is a single culm (the utricles, very young), and 

 Boott has noted on it that it is the whole material for the 

 species. And Arthur Bennett has named this type- 

 piece C. rariflora Smith : and so it is ! Richardson col- 

 lected a quantity of C. rariflora and this ' podocarpa' 

 looks certainly a fragment out of the rest of his rariflora, 

 which was sent up to Brown (at the British Museum) to 

 draw up his list upon. The Kew Index and other authors 

 cite C. rariflora Smith Engl. Bot. v. 4 (1828) p. 100; and 

 if this were the true original citation, the name podocarpa 

 would have prioritv — but I find C. rariflora Smith (in 

 Sowerby) Engl. Bot. v. 35 (1813) t. 2516 and there may 

 very possibly be names i anterior to this." In comparing 

 Boott 's figure (I. c.) with a young specimen of C. rari- 

 flora Sm. there can be no doubt about the correctness of 

 the identification proposed by the botanists at Kew. But 

 if we compare the diagnosis of C. podocarpa submitted 

 by Kiikenthal (I. c), and founded upon three plants of 

 very distinct habit and by no means conspecific, the result 

 is, of course, confusion. For even if Robert Brown's G. 

 podocarpa had not been described before, it could never 

 be understood as representing an aphyllopodic species, 

 as claimed by Kiikenthal, and confounded with the plant 

 collected by Macoun (I. a). 



Carex Montanensis Bail. 6 



This is the name of the species collected by Macoun 

 (I. c). It is a member of the Melanantlue Drej., and 

 very characteristic by the several, two to six, long-pedun- 

 culate, drooping, dark-colored pistillate spikes, and by 

 the relatively tall, aphyllopodic culm; the latter char- 

 acter is not, however, mentioned in the diagnosis ; fur- 

 thermore may be stated that the scales of the staminate 

 spike are light reddish-brown with green, not excurrent 

 midrib, while those of the pistillate are deep-purple to 

 black with no midvein visible; utriculus is purplish- 

 spotted, with the beak almost entire, spinulose, and with 



6 Bot. Gazette, p. 152, May, 1892. 



