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Stems 1-4 ft. high, 1-4 twelfths of an inch in diameter, usual- 

 ly simple the first year, not rarely bearing a few branches the 

 second year, 20-30 angled, nearly smooth or usually rough with 

 transverse bands of silex on the ridges, and rarely in the grooves 

 also, which are otherwise naked (except in one instance). 



Lumen (cavities in epidermal cells) about equaling the cell- 

 walls in thickness (narrower than in lacvigatuin) , the borders 

 beset with bristle-like protuberences, as in hiemale. 



Sheaths 24 as wide as long, spreading upward, the lower 

 3 or 4 usually with black basal rings and often a whitish band 

 above, the rest concolorous with stem the first year, gradually be- 

 coming ashy with age and the mouth incurving and contracted. 

 Leaves centrally keeled below, usually with two lateral ridges 

 above, those of the basal 3-6 sheaths usually concave in the mid- 

 dle, all narrowed upward and bearing at least a brown central 

 spot, usually larger and confluent into a narrow limb which is 

 relieved by a small hyaline commissural border. 



Commissures sensibly widened upward. Teeth thin, brown, 

 flexuous ; caducous, deciduous or persistent, usually with a white 

 transparent border, cohering by their edges in groups, centrally 

 dark brown, usually fading and becoming papery if long persist- 

 ent, firmer toward the base and with a central groove that is de- 

 current into the horny leaf-tip, or even half the length of the 

 leaf. Spike usually more apiculate than in lacvigatum. Anatomy 

 of hiemale, the carinal bast reaching nearly to the carinal hole, 

 separating the green parenchym, while the vallecular bast is only 

 2-4 cells high, the parenchym being continuous under it. an ar- 

 rangement just the opposite from lacvigation. 



A well characterized variety with sheaths more like European 

 hiemale than noted in any other American form, but the ridges 

 have bands of silex instead of two rows of tubercles. The small 

 stems and branches when present are usually very rough, leaves 

 usually centrally grooved, teeth usually persistent, with a broad 

 white membranous border, the brown center usually fading. The 

 aspect is usually sufficiently different from lacvigatum to be easily 

 separated without recourse to anatomical examination. 



Milde certainly, and A. Braun probably, based their descrip- 

 tions of E. lacvigatum on this plant. Possibly it forms Engel- 



