Holm, The genus Carex in North-West America. 
17 
characteristic of the region, but the former occurs, furtherinore, 
in South-Greenland. While C. Buxhau))iii^ otherwise so widely 
distributed throughout the northern hemisphere, is rare in our 
region, its near ally C. GmeJini seems to be confined to Alaska 
and the coasts of North-East Asia, including Japan. 
Among the ..formae desciscentes^' it is interesting to notice the 
presence of C. ushdata in Alaska (Port Clarence and St. Mathew 
Island) accompanied by C. venustida and C. 2Iontanensis. In C. 
microchaeta Yukon possesses a very peculiar type with the habit 
of C. rigida, but with the perigynia and scales of the 2Ielananthcie. 
C. spectcibüis, not yet collected in Alaska, has its geographical 
Center in the mountains of Washington, Oregon and British Co¬ 
lumbia, and extends from there to California and Alberta. The 
typical plant is very characteristic by its graceful habit, the more 
or less long-peduncled, but erect or spreading, pistillate Spikes, 
which are relatively short and dense-flowered; the scales are pur- 
plish, mucronate from the excurrent midvein and are longer than 
the perigynia. The perigynia are deep green, when immature, 
ovate, more or less distinctly nerved, and the short beak is two- 
lobed or merely emarginate. Among the copious material, which 
Mr. Suksdorf has kindly sent us from IMount Paddo (Washington), 
several and well marked varieties were noticeable. In some 
specimens the spikes were very short, ovate to almost globose, 
and the perig^mium much broader than in the type. In others 
the spikes were very long and cylindric, densely crowded, but the 
perigynium of normal shape and almost black at maturity. Or 
the spikes showed the typical shape and position, but were of a 
lighter color, brown to yellowish, as to scales and perigynia. In 
depauperate specimens the number of the pistillate spikes may be 
reduced to one or two, very short and almost sessile. 
The surface of the perigynium is in this species granulär, but 
in some specimens from jMount Paddo the margins, near the beak, 
were observed to be spinulose in some of the spikes, but not in 
all. The color of the perigynium, normally deep green, is often 
more or less purplish. 
Some perigynia ofDewey’s own specimens, kindly presented 
by jMr. C. B. Clarke, showed the development of the racheola into 
a processus, either naked or bearing a scale with a staminate 
flower. Such spikelets with the racheola extended and bearing 
staminate flowers are rare in Carex, in contrast to the cases where 
these secondary ramifications bear pistillate flowers, so well known 
from numerous species of Carices genuinae. 
In looking over the members of the grex that have been 
found within the region, C. 2Iertensii must be considered as one 
of its types, being besides the most evolute of the section. C. 
Gmelini is, also, a very interesting type, accompanied by C. Bux- 
haiimii. In C. ustidata we meet with a species of wide geographical 
distribution and which occurs here with two allies. C. 2Iontanensis 
and venustula, the latter being a Western type. 
C. microchaeta and spectcdilis occupy the most extreme limits 
of the grex and are, also, to be counted among the types of 
our region. 
Beihefte Bot. Centralbl. Bd. XXII. Abt. II. Heft 1. 2 
