22 Holm — Studies in the Cyperaceae. 



Car ex Lemmoni, W. Boott (figs. 9-12). 



Although an excellent, in several respects quite 

 remarkable species, and well described by the author 

 William Boott, 8 Carex Lemmoni has for the last thirty 

 years been identified and distributed under another 

 name : C. ablata Bail. The error was detected by C. B. 

 Clarke (in litteris), who then wrote a diagnosis, and gave 

 a name to the so-called C. Lemmoni: Carex cequa; in 

 accordance with Clarke, C. cequa is the plant which by W. 

 Boott was enumerated as C. fulva var. Horns chuchiana 

 in S. Watson's Botany of California (vol. 2, pp. 228, 250), 

 and also the plant called C. Lemmoni by L. H. Bailey in 

 his Preliminary Synopsis of North American Carices? 

 By Kiikenthal (I. c. p. 666), C. Lemmoni (non W. Boott) 

 and C. serratodens (non W. Boott) are considered iden- 

 tical, and the name serratodens is given the preference ; 

 nevertheless among the specimens cited by Kiikenthal 

 is Bolander's (n. 4995), which is C. albida Bail., a near 

 ally of the true C. Lemmoni, beside C. F. Baker's (n. 811), 

 which is C. cequa Clarke. It is hardly necessary to state 

 that the diagnosis does not cover either C. serratodens 

 W. Boott nor C. albida Bail. And by this same author 

 (I. c. p. 558) C. ablata Bail, has been made a variety of C. 

 luzulcefolia W. Boott with forma albida (Bail.) Kiiken- 

 thal (C. albida Bail.). In other words W. Boott should 

 have proposed three species of Carex: luzulcefolia, serra- 

 todens and Lemmoni, constituting an assemblage of such 

 confusion! — However the fault depends only upon the 

 fact that recent authors have not consulted the literature, 

 or they have not interpreted Boott 's diagnoses in the 

 proper way. It is really difficult to understand how 

 Boott 's C. Lemmoni could ever be misunderstood, and 

 for so long a time, although a considerable material 

 became collected from a number of stations, especially 

 along the Pacific coast from Southern California (fide S. 

 B. Parish) to British Columbia, in view of the fact that 

 it was described very minutely; while the establishment 

 of the species ablata Bail, merely rests on some incom- 

 plete, brief remarks : 10 " C. frigida of American botanists, 

 not Allioni. Distiguished from C. frigida chiefly as fol- 

 lows : Culm stirrer and more erect : leaves broader and 

 firmer, usually shining, commonly shorter: staminate 



s Boott, William: Notes on Cyperacece (Bot. Gaz. vol. 9, p. 85, 1884). 



9 Proceed. Am. Acad., p. 112, 1886. 



10 Bailey, L. H.: Notes on Carex IX. (Bot. Gaz. vol. 13, 1888). 



