448 . T. Holm — Studies in the Oyperaceoe. 



stated, liis manuscript was left unfinished by his premature 

 death, and none of the Vignece had been treated, nor did lie 

 leave any notes upon these. However, the general idea which 

 he had formed relating to the classification of the latter is so 

 clearly expressed in the introduction of his paper, that the 

 ''^ greges''' of these, the Yignece, may be well constructed on 

 the same basis as the others. But the method proposed by 

 Drejer for the . classification of these numerous species is so 

 original and so distinct from any of the previous methods, for 

 instaiTce those suggested by Kunth, Fries and others, thus no 

 comparison or combination of these seems possible. — If the 

 Vigj^ecB be treated and if some new "greges" be suggested as 

 supplemental to tiie Carices genuince, the treatment must be 

 carried out in accordance with the same principles as once sug- 

 gested by Drejer, whenever we intend to adopt and follow his 

 method. 



Nevertheless, an attempt has been made* to classify the 

 VignecB and the Carices genuince in natural sections : the for- 

 mer in accordance with Fries, viz.. Aero- and HyjparrlienaR] 

 i. e. in accordance with the distribution of the sexes : with the 

 staminate flowers borne at the top of the spikes or at the base 

 of these, and the latter, the Carices genuince, in accordance 

 with Drejer. It is readily perceived that these two methods 

 are not to be combined, since the former, the one of Fries, is 

 founded upon merely artificial characters, while the latter 

 strives to be as natural as possible. Moreover, tlie interpreta- 

 tion of the '' greges," proposed by Drejer, is far from correct, 

 in spite of the fact that the diagnoses have been written in 

 excellent Latin. Let us, for instance, examine the Trachy- 

 chlcencB Drej., as interpreted by Professor Bailey, With 

 Drejer this " grex " contained such species as C. glctitca, his- 

 pidci and trinervis^ while Professor Bailey has made it a com- 

 plex of utterly different types and Avith the exclusion of C. 

 glauca^ which this author, strange to say, has referred to the 

 Acutw of Fries. This section, the Aciitce, did not, however, 

 with Fries contain such species as C. glauca^ but only C. acuta 

 ?iud pj^olixa, while Fries himself had C glaiccct as a member of 

 " Pallescentes.^^ And the treatment of the Yignece, by com- 

 bining the various and very incongruous sections of Kunth, 

 Fries, Nyman, Christ and Tuckerman has necessarily resulted 

 in confusion. 



A somewhat more successful attempt has been made by 

 Pev. G. Kukenthal in his treatment of some South American 

 Carices^ in which the Aero- and Hyparrhence, have become 

 dissolved into groups that are more natural, and where the 



* Bailey, L. H. Proceed. American Acad. Arts and Sci., vol. xxii, p. 59, 

 1886. 



