418 T, Holm — Studies m the Cyjyeracem. 



variation, which might have resulted in the establishing of 

 several species, if it were not that we had the opportunity of 

 studying the plant in its natural surroundings. It is a species 

 that has, so far, been entirely misunderstood, and, strange to 

 say, it has at various times been confounded with such species 

 as C. Tohniei^ rigida^ vidgaris and ^idla^ — to none of which 

 it bears any close reseaiblance. It seems as if the mode of 

 growth, the color, shape and direction of the utricle in this 

 species has not heretofore been very critically examined. And 

 the morphological structure of the rhizome with its floral and 

 leafy shoots, besides the mere color of utriculus, its outline and 

 direction, are characters of no small importance for distinguish- 

 ing critical species, and are often much more constant than the 

 number of stigmas, of spikes, distribution of sexes, etc. 



Thus is the ramification of the rhizome in Carex either 

 mono- or sympodial, the former being rare, but, as we have 

 mentioned in a previously published paper,^ it is characteristic 

 of a number of allies of C. laxiflora^ digitata^ etc., to which it 

 appears as absolutely constant, while the latter, the sympodial, 

 is to be observed in most of the other Carices. The csespitose 

 and the stoloniferous growth is nearly always constant in the 

 respective species, and such variations as have been noticed in 

 a few cases, for instance in C. vulgaris^ where a caespitose rhi- 

 zome changes into one that is stoloniferous, it appears to 

 depend merely on the character of the soil, and is, therefore, 

 of less importance. 



Finally we may mention an additional character derived from 

 the foliar organs at the base of the flower-bearing stem, which 

 was first described by Elias Fries,f and which consists in these 

 basal leaves being provided with large, assimilating blades or 

 being merely scale-like with rudimentary or non-developed 

 blades, at the time of the flowering. He gave the name "Phyl- 

 lopodic " to the former, and " Aphyllopodic " to the latter. 

 Besides the species with monopodial ramification, which are all 

 " aphyllopodic," not a few species of those with sympodia 

 belong to this same category. Such phyllo- and aphyllo-podic 

 species are readily to be distinguished from each other, inas- 

 much as the character appears constant ; low forms of the 

 aphyllopodic Carex macrochcBta exhibit in this wise an entirely 

 different aspect from the phyllopodic C. ustulata^ with which 

 such dwarfish forms have often been confounded, as well as 

 the aphyllopodic C. coespitosa may be distinguished at once 

 from the phyllopodic C. vulgaris and its allies. It is a feature 

 which deserves much attention, but seems, so far, to have been 



* This Journal, vol. i, 1896, p. 348. 



f Fries, Elias : Synopsis Caricum distigmaticarum, spicis sexu distinctis, 

 in Scandinavia lectarum. (Botaniska Notiser, 1843, p. 97.) 



