T. Holm —Studies in the Cyjpercbcem. 27 



much narrower and shorter than the utricle ; utricle almost 

 sessile, erect, compressed, broadly ovate with very conspicuous, 

 denticulate wings and 4 nerves, of which the marginal ones are 

 very prominent on the ventral face, light green, tapering into 

 a rather long, bidentate, scabrous beak ; stigmata 2. 



Carex alpina Sw. var. Stevenii Holm. 



This differs from the type especially by its narrower spikes, 

 which are less contiguous and often somewhat remote and 

 peduncled ; the utricle is at maturity dark, reddish brown with 

 an emarginate beak, scabrous along the margins and early 

 deciduous ; the scales are brownish to almost black, with narrow, 

 hyaline margins ; in specimens from dry rocks the culms are 

 seldom more than from 6-12^"" in height, but in specimens from 

 swamps the culms attain a height of 55^^"^ and are much 

 more slender than in the type. 



Carex melanocephala Turcz. 



C. nigra Olney Exsicc, fasc. 5, 24, 1871. 

 C. atrata L. var. nigra Am. aiith. 

 C. nova Bailey.* 



Turczaninow described this species in his work Flora 

 Eaicalensi-Dahurica with the following diagnosis : " Spicis 3 

 dense congestis sessilibus, adjecta rarius quarta subremota 

 breviterque pedunculata, terminali androgyna basi mascula, 

 reliquis foemineis, utriculis glabris ellipticis dorso convexis 

 subtrigonis, rostro longiusculo bidentato terminatis ; radice 

 stolonifera. In alpibus Baicalensibus Urgudei, Schibet, ad fl. 

 Tessa et cset. Floret Junio, Julio." Boott has, also, described 

 C ^nelanocephala, but as a variety ^^ jfyarmjiova " of G. alpina: 

 "perigyniis majoribus ellipticis, bihdis, enerviis, fusco-pur- 

 pureis, basi pallidis, squama ovata fusco-purpurea nervo con- 

 colori rarius extra apicem producto longioribus." The species 

 has for many years been collected in this country, but has been 

 confounded with C. nigra. All. and with C. alpina Sw., while 

 Professor Bailey segregated it as an independent species C. 

 nova. The diagnosis of C. nova is, however, very incomplete, 

 and since we have had the opportunity of studying an abund- 

 ance of specimens at various elevations, we have thought it 

 worth while to append a diagnosis of this interesting species, 

 which Mr. C. B. Clarke has kindly identified for us as iden- 

 tical with Turczaninow's C. melanocephala : Bhizome loosely 

 csespitose with ascending shoots, the leaf-sheaths persisting, 

 reddish brown; leaves shorter than the culm, relatively narrow, 

 but flat, scabrous along the margins and lower face, the ligule 



* Jour. Botany London, 1888, vol. 26, p. 322 and Mem. Torr. Bot. Club, 

 vol. 1, 1889, p. 10. 



