
          Carex cyperoides. We have good foreign specimens, but had
 no American, & wrote to Mr. Olney who could only furnish 
 poor & insufficient ones, from which, however 
 I determine (always with my master's consent & approbation)
 that our plant is distinct from the European, as
 contrasted with which I observe the following differences. 
 The perigm. [perigynium] is scarcely stipitate, tapering from a merely contracted
 (not attenuate) & wider [base?], into a much shorter 
 beak, of which the teeth are also shorter. The periga. [perigynia] are less 
 distinctly nerved than in C. cyp. [Carex cyperoides], are more crowded on
 the rachis, & the larger [longer?] beaks of C. cyp. [Carex cyperoides] give to that sp. [species] a
 more bristly appearance. The achenm. [achenium] in our plant is
 ovate, not ovate-oblong as in C. cyp. [Carex cyperoides] & the stigmas are 
 exserted, whereas in the specms. [specimens] of C. cyp. [Carex cyperoides] I find them always 
 included, & not often reaching to the orifice of the beak. 
 The scale is abruptly mucronate instead of tapering 
 gradually, & is proportionably shorter. Now I wish 
 you to examine your specimens with reference to all
 these points & tell me how they hold out. You must
 soak the perigyna. [perigynia] to get at the true shape of them as 
 the [base?] contracts when dry. Also please send me the 
 general descripn. [description] of an average specn. [specimen]. The number of 
 the spikes on a head, height of plant, leaves &c. Is Dewey's
 descripn. [description] (last no. [number] of Sill. Jour. [Silliman's Journal] correct in these respects. I 
 subjoin my char. [character] as [folls?]


 C. sychnocephala. Spicis androgynis, inferne masculis 
 crebris arcte capitato-aggregatis folioso-bracteatis; stigmatibus 
 2; perigyniis compressis e basi ovato-lanceolata abrupte 
 contracta subsessili longe sensimque rostratis 
 apice bifidis margine scabris squamam hyalinam lanceolata [lanceolatam]
 abrupte mucronatam paulo longioribus [superantibus]. 

        