150 T. Holm — Studies in the Gyperacem. 



description of the species. We know nothing certain about 

 the matter, but it would be illogical to suppose that Allioni 

 conld make such a mistake, when we remember that he is the 

 very author himself of several critical species of Garex that 

 are much more difficult to describe than Carex Buxbaumii. 

 There is, so far, absolutely nothing to justify us in assuming 

 that the specimen of G. Buxbaumii was preserved as the type 

 of ( Y . fusca. If it really were the case, we should expect to 

 find citations in the works of other authors who were familiar 

 with Allioni's work and his herbarium ; but there are no such 

 citations of C. fusca as being identical with Wahlenberg's G. 

 Buxbaumii, since the latter has never been known to be com- 

 mon on the Alps of Piemont ; as a matter of fact it has never 

 been found there. 



It is, for instance, very strange that Schkuhr does not refer 

 to Allioni's plant, but that he established a G fusca of his 

 own ; he does not appear to have known G. Buxbaumii either, 

 since he describes this as his G polygama, making no allusion 

 whatever to Allioni's plant. The same with Willdenow, who 

 describes G. Buxbaumii but without any reference to C. fusca 

 of Allioni. First, Gaudin does enumerate Allioni's species, 

 quoting Haller's diagnosis, to which Allioni refers, and Gaudin 

 considered G. fusca to be either G rigida Good, or a variety 

 nigrior of G. ccespitosa L ; the latter plant is among those 

 which Haller's pupils collected, and this is, perhaps, the plant 

 Allioni had in view. Bertoloni in his work upon the Flora of 

 Italy makes no mention neither of C. fusca All. or of G. Bux- 

 baicmii Wahlbg. But finally in Parlatore's Flora Italiana do 

 we learn that G Buxbaumii is a welcome acquisition to the 

 Flora of Italy, having been discovered near Bolzano, but with 

 no reference to its supposed earlier stations in Piemont. If 

 Parlatore had recognized Allioni's G fusca as identical with 

 G. Buxbaumii, he would surely have referred to Allioni's 

 species and stated its occurrence " frequens in alpibus, quae 

 monte Vesulo et Cenisio intercipiuntur." But Parlatore does 

 not give us any information about G. fusca ; would it not be 

 more correct to surmise that the identity of this species is 

 obscure ? Neither Schkuhr, Bertoloni, Parlatore or Willde- 

 now seem to have been able to determine this plant with cer- 

 tainty, and these authors were very familiar with the work of 

 Allioni. It is true that G. Buxbaumii does sometimes occur 

 with the terminal spike purely staminate instead of gyngecan- 

 drous, yet the plant described by Parlatore (1. c.) is the typical 

 form ; the latter, and the specimen, if correctly identified, in 

 Allioni's herbarium has, also, a gynsecandrous spike. Let us 

 presume that even if the specimen in the herbarium be the 

 true G. Buxbaumii, that the specimen was not the plant 



