T. Holm — Studies in the Cy^peracecB. 25 



presented to the writer through the kindness of Mr. James M. 

 Macoun, which was collected " on mountain summits, alt. 

 7,400 ft., at the headwaters of Fraser River in British 

 Columbia." 



Carex occidentalis Bailey. 



Bhizome short, creeping, forming dense mats, with persist- 

 ing, dark-brown sheaths ; leaves glaucous, shorter than the 

 culm, narrow, but fiat, scabrous along the margins ; culms 

 numerous, from 20 to 60*^°" in height, slender, triangular, sca- 

 brous, phyllopodic ; spikes 3 to 8, androgynous, small and few- 

 flowered, roundish, sessile, contiguous or the lower ones remote, 

 the bracts scale-like or filiform, but much shorter than the 

 inflorescence ; scales ovate, acuminate and often mucronate, 

 reddish-brown with green midrib and broad, hyaline margins, 

 about as long as the utricles ; utricle shortly stipitate, spread- 

 ing at maturity, elliptical, plano-convex, wingless, spongious at 

 the base, two-ribbed (the marginal), light brown, scabrous 

 along the upper margins and along the short, but distinct, 

 bidentate beak ; stigmata 2. 



Carex f estiva Dew. 



Certain points regarding the supposed identity of our plant 

 with C. Macloviana d'Urv. make it necessary to i^eproduce 

 some of the diagnoses already published. Dewey, the author 

 of the species, described the utricle as follows : " f ructibus 

 ovatis oblongis rostratis in apice serrulatis bifid is convexo- 

 planis, squama ovata acutiuscula longioribus," and his speci- 

 mens came from Bear Lake and the Bocky Mountains. This 

 description was by Boott,^ somewhat modified, ^'perigyniis 

 ovato-ellipticis attenuato-rostratis, ore albo-hyalino oblique antice 

 secto demum bidentato, utrinque leviter nervatis " ; thus the 

 beak of the utricle at first described as bifid, became by Boott 

 corrected to " obliquely slit on the dorsal face, finally bidentate," 

 The Scandinavian plant is, in accordance with Hartman,f 

 described as possessing a membranaceous, bidentate beak, and 

 the figure given by Andersson:}; shows a similar, bidentate apex 

 of the utricle. Blytt§ attributes a " membranaceously-lobed, 

 truncate beak " to the utricle ; thus it seems as if the JN^orth 

 American and Scandinavian plants exhibit the same structure 

 in this particular respect, i. e. the beak of the utricle. The 

 Greenland plant of C.f estiva is by Drejer || described as fol- 

 lows : " perigyniis ovato-ellipticis plano-convexis nervosis mar- 



*I11, genus Carex, vol. i, p. 26. 

 f Skandinaviens Flora 18T9, p. 475. 

 X Skandinaviens Cyperaceer 1849, fig. 27. 

 § Norges Flora, vol. i, p. 197, 1861. 

 II Revisio crit. Caric. bor., p. 23, 1841. 



