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to Milde it prefers rich grassy places, the borders of mountain 

 streams and swamps, and may even be found in company with 

 11. Huviatile. Few American collectors give field notes. Fernald 

 and I found it on gravelly river banks. Engelmann on wet rocks, 

 and Canby's specimens contain Elcocharis, Cypcrus, etc., showing 

 that they were collected in a swamp. Milde says the stems are 

 promptly killed by frost except where protected. I have been 

 unable to learn from collectors if this is so. but a study of 

 specimens shows but very few. mostly short, fragmentary stems 

 of the previous year. Fernald's specimens from Ft. Fairfield. 

 Me., collected in August, have a few of these fragments that have 

 branches near the top, all turning yellow as if ripening. Evi- 

 dently it is exceptional that stems live over. 



4. Nelsoni var. now Stems tufted, l / 2 to 2 feet high, mostly 

 less than a line wide, erect or ascending, annual, 8 to 12 angled ; 

 ridges rounded, with cross-bands of silex ; grooves with rosulse 

 scattered or in bands connecting the ends of the opposite stomata. 

 Sheaths ampliated in dry plants collected early, through ex- 

 cessive shrinking of the node. In a wet state or in fresh speci- 

 mens they are cylindrical, twice as long as broad, all green in 

 young plants ; the basal become black and a black band appears on 

 most of the rest, this working downward asymmetrically and 

 light patches appearing as they die; leaves grooved in center, 

 often 4 angled.* Teeth black and grooved centrally, broadly 

 hyaline bordered, ending in filiform deciduous points equaling 

 therjj in length; centrum about 1-3 the total diameter, the section 

 being very similar to the last. Almost exactly between Jcsitpi 

 anfl laevigatum with which it grows associated along a canal at 

 East Chicago, 111.. .V. L. T. Nelson. Also at Indiana Point and 

 South Chicago, Shull. Nelson's plants grew in sand, as did 

 Shull's from Indiana Point. The South Chicago specimens 

 grew in a swamp among Scirpus, Elcocharis. Cariccs. etc.. in 

 a wet loamy soil. Sandy shore, Manistegue. Mich.. J. H. Shutte, 

 August, 1887. Banks and gravelly flats of West Canada Creek, 

 Herkimer. N. Y.. Dr. J. V. Habcrcr. 



In the abundance of specimens sent by Mr. Nelson, collected 

 in June, I did not find a vestige of old stems. Among those col- 

 lected by Mr. Shull in November, I found many in process of 

 dying from top downward, and I think none of them would 

 survive the winter. 



